


Wulfen Effect

by Dantegrey



Category: Mass Effect, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-19 21:23:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 121,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8225204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dantegrey/pseuds/Dantegrey
Summary: [AU]For thousands of years, the 13ª Company; the Wulfen; hunted the traitors. Now, Tor Ironwolf has to pay the higher price, and found himself in a place where Hope still lives. A lone wolf against an entire universe. The races of the universe will see what war, really looks like.Repost of my Fic from F.F





	1. Wulfen effect 1

Eye of Terror/World of whispers/Date impossible to read as the time in the warp is impossible to establish.

“Oh, shut up already” grunted Sarek and squished the moaning head of the last Daemonette, before he rose his bolter and send a quick burst of bullets into the collapsing form of the daemonette mount.

The wulfen at his charge, had already ripped all the daemons on their way to the lines of the Slannesh cultists; they wanted flesh and blood and not the unstable and corrupt flesh of the demons, who simply disappeared back to the warp when you destroy it. The pack has already retreated, after killing the chaos paladin who keep this border world of the Eye of Terror.

A common relay for Chaos invasions fleets before entering the material world; the Emperor Tarot has told, that the death of the chaos paladin will bring glory to them and safety to the Imperial supply lines and the runes of the Runic priests confirmed it, so it was only a matter of time before the pack hunted and killed the paladin. However, the world was one of the most annoying ones Sarek has ever stepped in, half of the surface was moaning flesh; sloppy and wet; that resounded when the wheels of the Storm claw bikers burned over it.

Thanks Russ and the All father for the Rune priest Portals, capable of letting them travel easily through the Inmaterium where they are needed the most.

The Grey slayers were already looting the bodies of the mutants and the few traitors astartes presents in the ambush; in the middle of the fucking Eye of Terror it was almost impossible to find supplies and they have been waging war against the traitorous legions for several millenniums already. Anything could be used to kill some traitorous bastards and the warp be dammed, if they let something ;like thousands bullets of ammo for his bolters; behind, just because there were inside a bolter with some chaos runes, in the hands of their last prey. Actually, it was kind of payback, to kill the bastards with the same guns they pretend to use against the Empire and the pack really needed it; the Wulfen could rip apart a tank just with their claws, but the rest of the Grey slayers need ammo for their weapons.

Sarek howled into the air, calling back the Wulfen pack; his, was one of the most populous in the last hundred years; soon the Rune priest will call the forces to retreat, as Lord Bulveye and his Storm claw pack has already claimed the head of the Slannesh paladin.

Sarek was more than ready to listen to the Rune priest tale of the battle, as Sareks pack has been only a diversion for the main forces of chaos to follow him and open a path for a portal to open and a strike force be deployed in their noses, destroying completely the paladin and his or her ;with Slannesh, half of the time you are fighting something that doesn’t fit in any gender definition; elite guard.

The communicator inside his wolf crafted helmet sound three times; advising him that the rest of the forces are ready to move into the portal to the base and preparing for another strike.

The chaos paladin has been only the first step in a series of pin point strikes to the chain of command of the heretics in this sector of the galaxy; the Tarot of the Emperor, however, has been a bit ominous on that regard; the pack will do a great good to the Empire yes, but there was something odd about the Runes too.

Actually there was four Rune priests available for the attacks, the Wulfen company was preparing; so there can only be four portals open as a time and all the priests must go with the ground forces, just in case something went wrong and the pack need a quick extraction. They couldn’t afford any casualty and send themselves into an artillery attack or a demon swarm, would be something only the World devourers fuckers would do on their worst psycho chip induced rage.

They are the Sixth Legion, the sons of Russ, the progeny of Fenris; the executioners of the Emperors will and among them, the Wulfen are the ones who embodies the beast that all the Russ sons had inside their bodies and souls. Perhaps that’s why they were so resilient to the warp; they already had a wolf in their souls and they don’t tolerate any non desired intruders, like all possessed cretins they had killed so far.

Sarek own count reached the thousands; something impressive if it wasn’t because it would be an easy to reach number, if one keeps fighting for over ten thousand years, as the Wulfen had been doing since the end of the Horus Heresy; when they entered the Eye of terror in pursuit of the cyclops primarch of the Thousand sons.

The day they burnt Prospero to the ground in punishment of his sorcery and abominable activities.

There was few among the remaining numbers of the company, that remembers how Russ; a truly odd behavior from him as any who really know him could testify; tried to reason and warn his brother of the foolishness of his actions, how his dealing into sorcery and mystic matters would spell disaster for him and his Legion. In the time the company has been fighting inside the warp twisted terrain, they had picked up some tricks to foul and disrupt sorcery and demonology; one just does things like this just to survive to fight another day, on the other hand, open sorcery and abominable things this chaos retarded cultist did, was a different game altogether.

Sarek was a Wolf Priest in a land of heresy and he took pride on the fact, that none of the wolves under his care, had never gone astray of the path of the sons of Russ. They hunt the heretic; they hunt the traitors; the howls of the pack are the last sounds they will never ear and the sound make them fear the inevitable, at the claws and fangs of the Wulfen. Even the demons had learnt to respect the power of the Wulfen packs, as they are groups of astartes werewolves with a preference for demons as preys.

The sound of the ripping flesh of a traitor and his screams when the pack tear him apart, always made Sarek smile.

And, there were few things that could bring, even a shadow of happiness, into the packs of the 13º company, since they started his own hunt of any traitors they could find inside the Eye of terror. Originally it was only a hunt for the heads of the Thousand sons but in time it just naturally expanded to any traitor astartes they found on their path.

From the crazy, eternaly furious, Khorne bersekers to the harpy screeches of the Noisy marines of Slannesh; all of them had fallen when the howl of the hunt reverberates on the sky of their bases and palaces. They thought they were safe inside the Eye of Terror. The 13 company show them how wrong they were; and when they just run to the material realm, the hunt just follow them and make some legends among the populace, as they were hunting down their enemies.

For the records of the Administratum, it was just another action of the Space wolves; the name the Six legion took after the Horus Heresy and when Russ disappeared, All father knows where.The Primarch did things like that from time to time; his father and him had this kind of prophetic links that made the Primarch stare into the infinite from time to time and then guide the Sixth Legion into a cluster fuck war that none other legion was capable of doing or at last doing without turning the planet into a lifeless rock.

Sarek listened to the sound of the claws of the wulfen scratching the flesh like floor and his senses picked how a dozen of astartes size werewolves were running on his fours, passing along him into the coordinates of the place on where the Runic priest will open a new portal to cross into one of the few safe bases they have scattered around the Eye of Terror. He raised his bolter and send some quick burst into the confused and butchered mutants lines behind them, cutting any attempt of following the retreating Wulfen from the mutants that were close enough to pursuit but not close enough to be tear apart when the wolves fell over their lines.

He threw some grenades into the punished lines and start to run among the rest of the werewolves; the wolves need an alpha or they lost the objectives quite easily, much more interested in tear a new one to anything closer; even for an astartes like him the pace of the run was quite taxing but he was a Wolf priest, the leader of this pack and he will triumph and demonstrate he is the alpha no matter what. Another smile formed in his lips inside the wolf shaped helmet, when his automatic senses picked up the unmistakeable sound of a pair of missiles passing way over his head, crashing into the position they have been just a minute ago.

Looks like the good, old, Long fangs had received the signal too and they were doing some cover fire for the wolves to move out of the retaliation, that his sudden attack will surely produce, when the mutants and their accursed masters recovered from the beating they have received and start to move in mass against the fleeing wolves. They had killed the leader yes, and no doubt did some serious damage to the numbers of the forces of the paladin inside this planet but even if they kill minions like those for the hundreds, there will always be more for the thousands.

The secret was to cut the head of the snake any times need to be sure you had killed it; sometime with mutants and demons you can't be sure just with decapitating it; and then proceed to do as damage as you can before you disappear in the night. Some cretins could call them cowards but throw themselves into a war of attrition was exactly the dumbest thing they could do and despite all the rumors about them; the wolves are all but stupid.

Sarek raised his power weapon as salute to the five Long fangs under the cover of a giant liver, bleeding from a hundred punctures in the grim flesh, when the pack pass under the heavy fire they were throwing into the disarrayed lines of cultist; they were regrouping under the leadership of a purple clad astartes with seven tentacles instead of left arm but then, the leader of the Long Fangs took aim with his plasma rifle and vaporized the bastard.

Sarek cursed under his breath when the unreliable gun exploded into the hands of the marine and throw him several meters backwards; the Wolf Priest raised his weapon, making the Wulfen stop his run, they were confused for the act, but the priest simply pointed the weapon into the distance; directly to the place of the portal location and the wolves just continued his run, into the new direction.

One of the Long fangs has already run next to his brother, as the rest of the pack just keep launching volley after volley of missiles and heavy bolter shells into the enemy positions; soon they have to run too, but that didn’t prevent him to make some good damage to the Chaos forces before they were forced to run. Any traitorous bastard that they kill today, will be one less to plague the lands of the Emperor.

Sarek took out his tools, in order to see if the wolf could be healed or he would have to pick up his geneseed and burn the corpse, nothing will remain for the heretic to gloat about. Fortunately, the Long fang was more stunned that really harm; the ceramic plate of his armour has taken the worst of the explosion and he only had half his face with bad burns. For a Fenrisian born, that was nothing a barrel of mead and some hours of rest couldn’t heal; but the brunt trauma and the hyper heated plasma were more than enough to cripple the Long fang for a few minutes, until his flesh cooled and his three lungs started working again; unfortunately they had little time for breaks.

The Long Fang accepted the hand Sarek extended and the old wolf muttered something about how the plasma was safer in the old days and what the hell were the red bastards of mars doing?, how could they fabricate such crap and be proud on their creations?.

Sarek laughed and start running along the Long fangs pack into the portal localization, helping the wounded Long fang until his astartes physiology could compensate the grievous wounds.

From time to time the heavy bolter carrier and the missile launcher carrier stopped for a few seconds to launch another volley of cover fire into the distance; just to keep any possible pursuer with the head under the cover. The screams were the reward of his actions as the krak missiles and the bolter shells sow the bastards like wheat.

They run for minutes in a sprint that would make any professional athlete go green ork of jealousy; soon they rejoin with the rest of the diversion force; the mass of the pack under the leadership of Bulveye; and cross the warp portals open by the Runic priests into their base in one forgotten asteroid on the border of a Khorne demon world, so out of the common routes that no ship comes nearby, something that do wonders for their secrecy. Thanks the Emperor, the Khorne demons are too much occupied with their constant carnage around them to run a scan of the asteroids near his planet and the fact that a Nurgle invasion was at his borders, only helped to hide better their temporal base.

They were using the asteroids for this attack; after the company regroups they will jump to another temporary safe place to repairs and patch any piece of equipment they could, before jump again into another demon infested world, to kill the last of the objectives the runes had foretold. It seems the company will have a very busy time; and considering the time inside the Eye of terror could go backwards; no matter if they were sent into the future of the past, the Wolves will hunt their prey for Russ and the Allfather.

Sarek reached the place and move to his Wulfen pack, so he could calm and reestablish order among the savage wolfish astartes; they are good soldiers but their animals instincts sometimes took the better of them and they need a steady hand to go back to the right path. The dozen Wulfens were moving nervously around a Grey slayers pack who were simply recharging their bolters and checking their equipment; counting the loot they picked from the dead on the last battle.

It has been a good loot this time; at last they would have some bolter ammo, it was kind of hard to put their hands into bolter ammunition as only the traitors astartes have those on them, the rest of the rubble they killed were usually armed with inferior weaponry, nothing that they could use for real, unless they were really desperate. The mutants and cultist have laser rifles the best days and archaic solid projectiles automatic weapons the worst; if they don’t carry some kind of demonic possessed weapon that only a cretin will carry, acting like a fucking beacon to any warp entity nearby.

Sarek grunted and the vox of his wolf helmet projected the sound so the pack could listen to it clearly; the Wulfen formed at his side; all his animal urges sated for the moment and his astartes training kick in letting them recover some kind of discipline and order.

A blue spot appeared in the middle of the air and before anyone could even blink, it expanded to a ten meters radius arc, swirling with energy and power; the arc was established when a towering figure; even for astartes; cross the arc and throw some runes to the edges of it, forming a circling pattern of golden glowing runes.

The Wolf priest smiled when he saw Tor; his friend and Priest like him but Rune priest instead of Wolf priest; put his red sword over his shoulder and move to the awaiting forces of the 13º company.

Tor was a towering giant of ten feet, clad in golden and dark grey runes and armour; his armour has patches from almost all the traitorous Legions except the Death Guard; those bastards are living plagues and his equipment was always rusted or putrid beyond repair, only working by the will of their demonic patron; _Redstorm_ his psychic broadsword was on his right hand and he lazily carried a stolen combibolter and meltagun from the black legion on his other hand.

He stomped the ground as his armour runes dispersed the accumulated power of the Inmaterium, as his psy powers where the ones who opened the gate; every time his armour broke, he had to engrave again all the sacred runes of protection into the traitors gear; a labour most frustrating; swearing like a sailor on a calm belt.

As Sarek, he wore a wolf shaped helmet; proof of being one of the original Astartes of the Sixth Legion; but his helmet was covered in patches and runes, connected to the power cells on his back.

The priest raised the crimson glowing sword and pointed to the swirling arc.

“What are you waiting for, wolves?” his voice sounded powerful and commanding but it couldn’t hide the pride and mirth for the success of the mission and the high rate of survival of his wolf brothers “ get into the portal, we a have a lot more bastards to kill”.

The pack howled and run through the portal, the Wulfen and the Grey slayers first, as they were the most uncontrollable and carried the loot respectively; Sarek however, waited to have some words with his old friend and to be sure the force retreat without problems.

“How was the hunt _Iron wolf_?” asked Sarek putting down his helmet; revealing a surprisingly clear face of any wolf traits except his long canines; calling Tor by the name his primarch give him the day he become part of the Sixth Legion Astartes forces.

Tor snorted and just sheathed his sword on the maglock sheath on his left leg; the hiss of the sword power diminishing and the cooling of the runes, made some fine mist in the atmosphere; he took his helm and took it out too, keeping it on his free hand.

Tor had much more wolfish traits than Sarek; the Wulfen runs deep and powerful on the blood of the old Rune priest; he had a steel grey mane and bangs under the border of the helmet and the armour and he side of his face; deep golden eyes worthy of a wolf and the characteristic long canines of the Six legion; however his Wulfen course has make his nose more prominent and strong; his ears were pointy too and with a bit of black fur behind them.

Tor look like the human child of a thunder wolf and he does possess the strength and fury of one; being a psyker only add more ammo for his combat abilities.

“Damn, useless, monsters” grunted the fenrisian warrior “ Bulveye did short work of the, so glorious, Slannesh champion and his personal guard smelled of chaos taint and chemical tanks”.

“Ah, Biles works then” sighed Sarek guessing right that the elite guards of the Slannesh champion were a batch of clones from the traitor apothecary known as Fabius Bile.

A man who has even renegaded from his own Legion and their patron chaos god Slannesh; as he was only obsessed with the experimentation on the creation of the astartes and unlock the secrets about how the Emperor created the Primarchs.

“Clones for sure; they fought hard but they were nothing but meat shields in the best cases” nodded Tor “ nothing like those abominations we fought aboard that accursed Black Legion vessel near the Cadian gate”.

“Those things were an insult” grunted Sarek remembering full well that combat and the disgust and despise he felt for the twisted parody of a true astartes, Bile sold to a Black legion paladin, ready for starting a campaign into any systems he could reach “ we did well in burning them all to the warp, along that ugly piece of metal they called battleship”.

Tor nodded in agreement but suddenly he raised his head and look into the mist that surrounded the plain where the portal has been displayed. Sarek did notice too the sudden change in the surroundings, as their senses; much more accurate that even the rest of the marines; felt how the unmistakeable smell of the demons, was filling the air.

They were late as the last of the Long fangs cross the blue and black hole in the reality, leaving only Sarek and Tor in the plain; they put on they helmets and retreated too but before the first demon could find the place and disrupt the portal, Tor crossed it with a final insulting howl and the blue hole disappeared like it was never been there.

Another day; or whatever it was in the Eye of terror; for the sons of Russ of the 13th company of the Sixth legion of Adeptus Astartes of the Emperor of all Mankind.

  


Citadel space/Human embassy/Presidium/2183

  


To say Jane Lionel Shepard was pissed off would be the understatement of the century.

She was a deceptively strong woman; she was a bit short; reaching the 5´6¨ with a perfectly fit body; thanks to her biotics; and more than enough curves to grant some very appreciative glances for any healthy male or Asari in the neighborhood; however her most distinctive trait was her crimson hair and deep blue eyes that could pierce the soul of those under her command.

She has drag her ass off from side to side of the galaxy; hunting the bastard rogue Spectre Saren from Noveria to Feros and into Vermine.

Vermine become a clusterfuck of epic proportions in the end. Ashley died on that bloody rock, so they could put a nuke on the clone factory Saren had, in order to grown his own army of retarded and indoctrinated krogans, ready to launch them into the Citadel space. If it weren’t for a STG team under the leadership of Captain Kirrie; now deceased along Ashley; they couldn’t have finished the mission and nuke the abominable place to hell. In that bloody place, she had been insulted by an eons years old sentient ship, for Pete sake; the Sovereign wasn’t a geth ship; was a living and raging battleship of two kilometers size, ready to screw anything in his path.

And now that she had the hope that the fucking Council will react; about bloody time, as Garrus has the detail to say so eloquently; leading a fleet over his Turian renegade ass, now they came with this stupidity about the Terminus systems. Shepard was fuming inside but her face was expressionless; her N7 training was kind of useful to suppress emotions; however, the rest of crew at her side, knew better the infamous commander Shepard; the Lioness of Elysium and nightmare of all the Batarian Hegemony.

She was one of the best Vanguards of the Alliance and possible the best N7 operative they had in decades; not to mention the first and only human Spectre; a right earned after she shown in the faces of the Council the proofs of Saren betrayal. He has kill Matriarch Benezia; Liaras own mother; in front of her daughter; he has burned and destroy a thousand years old living lettuce in Feros, before it transformed all the colony into some kind of plant zombi like beings and after all that she lost a dear friend in Vermine.

All of those achievements, only for the Council to give her hope, to finally do some real things instead of hide behind political mumbo jumbo and excuses; just for put a leash in the last moment, at her and her ship into the Citadel dock bays. The Normandy was lock down and the rest of the crew grounded and pending of transportation to their home worlds; they even said a shit about Kirrie and Ashley, not even acknowledged their sacrifices and that pissed off Shepard to no end.

Udina was fuming as Shepard but he was much more worried about the political shitstorm that was coming when the Krogan discover that a human Spectre and a STG team from the Salarian had nuked down a laboratory with the possible cure for the genophage. The Asari councilor was more than happy with the results; so was the Turian and the Salarian councilors; they understand perfectly well how deep grave the human had dug themselves, thanks to the actions of the one and only Commander Shepard. This crazy red head was like a missile without any kind of system guide, just point her into the objective and be ready for the fireworks; she never disappoints; in an explosion of bullets and biotics powers.

Noveria, Feros, the assassination of an Asari Matriarch...she even free the last Rachni queen into the galaxy!. She had good intentions that’s for sure but she was nothing but another jar head, with too much power for his own good.

“Are you crazy?” asked Shepard to the councilors in a dangerous low voice that make his crew step back and quickly search for cover “ do you really believe blocking the relays will do Jack to stop the Sovereign?”.

“Commander, we are afraid that all of your allegations about some kind of “Reaper” living space vessel” started the Asari councilor “ were present to us without any kind of proof, so we believe that you were somehow affected by, how did you put into your reports? “Indoctrination”?”.

Garrus snorted behind the commander, he and Tali were inside the facilities, there was nothing funny about the indoctrination, it does something to your brain, it turned it to mush and then converts you into nothing but a husk ready to serve the Sovereign; Saren simply had the luck to be necessary; only prolonging the time before he goes “Uurrrggghhhh” like the rest of the salarians they saw indoctrinated inside the facility in Vermine.

“With all the respect Councilor” said Shepard in a cold and venomous voice “I add to my reports the vids I could salvage into the omnitools of Garrus Vakarian present here and Tali´zhora var Narrya; they SHOW you very clearly what the “indoctrination” could do to people” said Shepard in the exact doubtful tone of the councilor.

Garrus flashed his omnitool so the council could see it was a Savant VI last model; the state of the art of technology in omnitools; so there was nothing wrong with his tech device and it could record perfectly well, thank you.

“Yes, a very powerful brainwashing technique no doubt” said the Turian councilor; one who has always been against the presence of the humans among the stars; they were rowdy, indiscipline and ignorant the best days “ but that could be accomplish perfectly well with drugs, isolation and mental trauma; I only see geth under the command of Saren and not any “Reaper” of yours”.

“We recorded the entire conversation for fucks sake!” exploded Shepard and her biotic flare a little in a blue flame surrounding her body like a quick crown of flames.

None of the councilors reacted to the outburst as they were not in the same place as the flaming red head and diminished the outburst like the angry and ignorant child, they were convinced the humanity was.

“We only saw static snow, Shepard” wave a hand the Turian disregarding the matter.

“Nine minutes twenty-eight seconds of snow exactly” pointed Kaidan behind Shepard, checking his omnitool too; Kaidan was a biotic of first generation but his real talents were the machines, the best Sentinel Shepard had the pleasure to work with; the rough voice of the man was full of sarcasm “ before that, the image and sound its perfect and after that the image its perfect again as well, seriously councilors did you really see all the vid or just fast forward it to the best parts?”.

Shepard flash a quick smile to the sentinel for the support and turn her face; with an angry scold to the councilors; looking each one of them with anger and betrayal.

“The Salarians lost a good STG team, the Alliance lost one of its best soldiers, the Krogan lost a chance; minuscule but present; to cure the genophage and all of you re just sitting on yours thumbs after closing the door to the wolf, hoping that if you ignore him long enough he would just disappeared” said the woman to the councilors who simply stared back at her neither of the sides of this discussion will saw the mistake of his actions and she knew it.

They are scared; they fear something the didn’t understand and try to apply their old schemes into the problem, forcing it to fit into something they believe they could manage. They couldn’t be more wrong, but that doesn’t stop them to seek comfort on their excuses and political loopholes. Before any of them could say something more, Shepard sighed and turn her back to the council; ready to leave the room after a very tired and frustrated words.

“This is nuts; you are hiding, cowering in fear of a war against Terminus, when Sovereign will come; no matter how well you believe you are prepared; and kill us all just because you couldn’t trust your own bloody Spectres; I’m leaving; I’m tired of smashing my head against a wall”.

Udina did some gesture to stop Shepard but a single glare from the red head Vanguard and he just gulped and let the Lioness of Elysium left the embassy with her crew.

Outside the embassy she could still hear the councilors trow a tantrum about how disrespectful was the human and how they did well putting her and her crew under a leash; she just walk away into the depths of the Citadel; she needed a drink, she needed a lot of drinks. Anderson saw the woman left; he has been oddly quiet during all the interview with the Council but his eyes had the kind of stare than means there will be the hell of a problem incoming in and they will be sacrifices that must be done to prevent those problems. Shepard dismissed the crew once they reach the end of the elevator; all of them wanted to say something but they recognize the look on Shepard eyes; she wanted to be alone and if would be better for all of them to simply let her be before she manifest her feelings by a very powerful biotic throw to the other side of the Citadel space.

Garrus and Kaidan share the unpleasant news with the rest of the crew of the Normandy and told them just to let Shepard be, she was not in the mood to be trifled with; so the crew shrugged and dismissed going into all kind of errands; all of them knowing full well that it was only time before Shepard pulls out some kind of crazy stunt that send them all to hell and beyond.

She has done it a lot of times before, from shutting down and rogue IA in the moon, to hunt a trio of criminal bosses around half of the universe. She was a good Samaritan; so much was certain but she had a knack for violence that could make a berserker krogan look tame. Blame the vanguard training along the N7 elite forces training; they make her a biotic missile and she loved every second of it. She entered the corridors of the market; Choras den was closed after the stunt her crew pulled on Fist and his gang at the beginning of their travel; walking into the Flux, the other bar that would at last have enough variety of beverages to allow her to choose her poison for quite a variety and waste herself in peace.

Even for a strong woman like her, the pressure of the fucking beacon; the visions of the death of the Protean Empire; the clash with the Thorian and her zombi minions; once human colonists; and of course the fight with Matriarch Benezia; she put a bullet trough her head in front of Liara; not to mention she was the responsible of send Ashley to her death in Vermine.

She had a lot of ghosts chasing after her and still the universe continues dropping more weight over her already overloaded shoulders. She smiled warily to Jenna; the old Choras den waitress that she help to get out before the shit hits the fan; when she dropped a nuclear red drink on her table.

“You look you need it Commander” smiled back the girl and let her be, like she wanted.

Not really a surprise Jenna always had the best tips; she knows exactly what the client needs and they appreciate it. In Shepard case something capable of throwing herself to the ground and curl in blissful ignorance and drunkenness. She sipped the drink and her brain shut down for a second as her throat gagged at the presence of the foreign object slipping down her gullet. She managed to suppress a cough when the drink reached her stomach but she couldn’t hide a smile creep up on her face when the dumbness of the alcoholic drink hit her brain hard; ah the blessing of being unable to fell a shit.

No more worries, No more responsibilities, no more smashing against the political crap of the citadel, No more deaths over her conscience.

She took another sip of the drink and she noticed how easily went it down her throat the second time; it seems like it was one of those liquors that became easy to drink once you have reached some point; but she had to admit Jenna was right, she needed one of this.

Still dress with her N7 armor; the shadeless blue of her armor did contrast with her crimson red hair; just sat alone in the corner reservation of the Flux as Jenna has already advised to the other employes to simply don’t come closer to the brooding woman, if they don’t want to end flying over the handrails of the place into the market several stories under the Flux. It could be a very nasty fall and the Seg-C has just left the place; anyone dumb enough to attack the Lioness of Elysium when she is in this mood, deserves anything that could happen to them.

The music of the Flux was something on the verge of the conscious of Shepard; it was not her coup of tea but it wasn’t bad either, so she just simply enjoyed what was left of the drink and smiled like a drunkard when the liquor hit her brain like a train, clouding her senses in a very welcome blanket that soothed her stress and pain for a little.

She needed a damn break and the universe was giving her none; so she simply took it whenever she can.

They pretended to put her on a leash; stealing all from her; her crew, her ship, her hunt; fucking politicians they know nothing about what was happening out there; they are so busy with their own agendas that they couldn’t see the real problems that roams the universe. The Citadel could be call the center of the universe but it was pitiful unaware of what is looming beyond his glass windows.

Shepard ended her drink and thought about rose and raid the council offices; perhaps if she threw those motherfuckers to the Terminus system into a geth base, they will understand that hiding inside their own relay space was just only a temporary measure; meanwhile, Saren was going to awake the Reapers and for those monsters the relays are just a nuisance in the better case.

She tapped the payment on her omnitool and rose from the chair, the world moved a little and she groaned, fortunately there was no reporter around; the last thing she need was her appearance on the news walking half drunk on the Flux. She sat again and Jenna appeared again, but this time with a blue beverage; she just smiled and took the empty glass from the table.

God blessed the girl; the blue shit was a god send for her state of drunkenness; it was fresh and cleans the taste of the red liquor from her tongue; not to mention it seems to revive even her death brain cells after the red bomb Jenna has thrown at her with the previous drink. Nursing the new drink, she cursed about how soon she will be sober again; she loved the release of the responsibilities and how Ashley goodbye doesn’t ring in her ears like a damn accusation of being a complete bastard of the worst kind.

But all good things must come to an end and the appearance of Anderson at the entrance of the Flux meant only one thing.

The shit has just gotten interesting.

“Hey Shepard” saluted the black man with diversion hanging in his eyes “ do you have a minute for an old man?”.

  


Eye of Terror/Unnamed asteroid/Time has no sense here.

  


“Damn the Inmaterium and the cretin who build this tainted piece of junk” grunted Tor as the hands and tolls of his servo-harness; the only relic he conserved from his time as Iron priest before the company entered into the Eye of terror; finalized the modifications to the shoulder guard recovered from the corpse of a black legionary.

He has been working non-stop since the company finished the last hunt, in order to bring back to shape all the weapons and armors of the company before their next jump into their next prey. The tarot and the Runes had spoken the same for the first time in a very long time; whatever they did, they must kill these objectives without fault. And they were one of the best hunts the company has had in eons but at the same time they put a strain in the poor and scarce resources of the company.

No tanks; no dreadnought armor; no jumpacks, nothing.

Only scavenged bikes and all the weaponry they keep when they entered into the Eye of terror; fortunately almost all the traitorous Legions carried the same weapon pattern they had before the Great betrayal of the Horus Heresy and they were perfectly loot filled living corpses every time they meet and took some trophies and glory, now that they were at it.

Tor tossed the shoulder guard to one of the Grey slayers of his pack; the man was bringing more pieces and loot to the improvised forge; and the wolf grunted in thanks and proceed to put the shoulder back with the rest of the armor; now that the chaos icons has gone it was just a scratched but functional shoulder guard.

He took the next piece of the mountain at his sides and keep moving the arms of his servo-harness; originally it had only one extra servo-arm but soon, it was obvious than he would need a lot more extra appendages, now that it was impossible to have a retinue of Servitors around to do the lesser chores. He had to kill and shred, limb for limb, a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors and the purge and purify every single mechadendrites inside of the machine, before he could even use it for the simplest of the chores. Fussing the original Servo-arm he had with the looted piece of tainted tech, into one, single and functional, clean piece of invaluable technology.

Now, it was the most invaluable possession of the company, as it do wonders to keep the company equipment in top shape and ready for the eternal warfare that they were waging against practically, all the Eye of Terror.

Tor took all the pieces of the exploded plasma weapon and almost roared, seeing the state of the gun; it was not like the Long fangs have been lazy about keeping good maintenance of their gear; for Russ Sake the old farts were warriors even before Tor took his first prey back in Fenris; instead it was the crude disposition of the weapon innards, what make the part of Tor that was still an Iron priest, roar in revulsion and disgust. Some fucker just put piece over piece, so the gun could be shot and so be it; if the gun explodes bad luck; there was almost non safety measures, no heat disperser except the most basic venting conducts; extremely inefficient; the plasma cell of the weapon had almost three minuscule holes.

Figures; it was a miracle the bloody gun didn’t explode sooner and in a way that would vaporize half the body of the poor sod aiming the gun. The extra appendages and tools of the servo-harness went in movement with only a single mental command of Tor, as they dismount, clean and repair the pieces of the gun. Tor took the barrel of the gun and start to engrave some runes in the metal inside of the gun; the chaos taint would be lessened and the poor spirit machine of the weapon could rest a little after an unknown amount of years of poor maintenance and poorer construction.

After cleaning the gun and mounting all the pieces again; he maglocked the gun to his left leg as he couldn’t go searching for the Long Fang; he still had thousands of things to do in the crowed armory they had inside the asteroid. As much as him, another dozen of brothers who received the sacred teaching of the Machine god in mars were working non-stop to repair and upgrade all they can, all the gear of the company inside the asteroid.

He awoke his psyker powers inside the Eye of terror, during the first centuries of the hunt but he never forgot anything they taught to him on Mars, about the Machine God. He couldn’t; he had several memory buffers and other memory implants that prevented him to forget almost anything. Ten thousand years of warfare against the traitorous legions and the Inmaterium demon spawn and he still could remember with perfect clarity the blizzard sunsets on Fenris. Skald was another of his titles; Story teller; a title that grants him the privilege and the burden of remembering the tales of all his battle brothers and their heroic deeds until their life lines were cut.

Tor ended the piece of armor in front of him, before cutting the horns of the helmet and shape with the plasma cutter on one of his extra servo-arms, the crude image of the red wolf and the moon who was the symbol of the 13º great company of the sons of Russ.

Or what everybody call them, The Wulfen.

Tor ended his share of the work and radioed it to the nearby brothers, so they could pick their gears; he disengaged the Servo-harness on his back; and make a quick check up on his own sacred implants; the brain memory buffers, the mechadedites for the Servo-harness and his left arm; who himself had upgraded with and auspex and all the tech devices he could manage to put into the arm, without losing any power.

A procedure that took only an hour to him to complete and only because the living style of the 13º company doesn’t allow any kind of waste of time; every second counts when you are hunting a demon swarm or leading a charge into the nucleus of a tainted nemesis class carrier in the middle of a warp jump.

He always feared that he was offending somehow the spirits of the machines and weapons but he always tried to appeased them all he could, despite the always shortage of time he had to perform any kind of proper and sacred reparation or maintenance in the war gear of the company.

He took his wolf helmet and walked outside the armory; soon it will be crowded with battle brothers picking up his gear and returning to their guard positions, just in case the nearby demons of the planet they were orbiting notice their presence.

 _Redstorm_ buzzed a little in his scabbard; the broadsword feel the presence of the demons and the master crafted Force weapon was more than ready to destroy their corporeal forms and burn to the ground the dammed planet. He shared the sentiment but he was under the command of Lord Wolf Bulveye and for the moment, the Wolf Lord was much more interested in the hunt the tarot of the Emperor and the runes, had design for him and his company.

He exchanged some salutes and taunts with the Storm claws and Grey slayers of the camp; they were the spinal cord of the company; solid, veteran warriors that were ready for anything; as they prepare their gear for the new incursions into the enemy lines. A dozen of wolfs the size of big lions passed at a quick pace near him; the beast were artificially enhanced to be more lethal in the battlefield; entire packs of them followed the company into the Eye of Terror and despite the high tax of mutation the Eye of Terror causes on everything, the sturdy wolf race from Fenris didn’t have almost any mutant.

His pack was ready for the next incursion, but before that, Tor knew that the Wolf Lord Bulveye and his elite guard will ask advise and warning from the Rune Priests; to see if the Runes truly bless the hunt.

Tor wasn’t the best oracle out there; in all honesty he sucks at throwing the Runes; his powers are much more battle oriented. He is a front line fighter, capable of unleashing ungodly devastation upon his enemies, but not an oracle; his visions of the future are never as precise as the ones that the other Rune priest could see and he berates himself badly for it. The Rune priest were the ones that allow the company to travel inside the Eye of terror without ships or interference, thanks to the psy ability known only as The Portal. Or, in more layman terms, how to open a path from the surface of one planet to another, without falling at the hands of the predators that lurked the warp.

Tor soon saw the rest of the Rune priest of the packs along Lord Bulveye and his Storm claws pack, reunited over a long plain of stone surrounded by the most powerful rune wards the Rune priest could create. Even at the distance he could sense the uneasiness of the other priests and Bulveye; the frown of the man was like a thunder for Tor senses, and when Bulveye was pissed for something, it would only lead to deep troubles for all the company.

Mind you, that Bulveye has been leading the 13º company for ten thousand years, all of them inside the worst possible place in the universe, despite the loses and how they had to adopt a unique style of hit and run; they do look now like a wolf pack on his warfare; he has been doing a great job; but it didn’t rest any weight to the burden of knowing that any lost is, completely irreplaceable.

Soon he reached the border of the rune enclosed space; calling out one of his fellow Rune priest to attention; waiting for the people inside the wards to allow him entrance, last they need, was him breaking the protections and provoking that all demon spawn in all the star system noticed their presence.

Ulfgerth was one of the oldest Rune priest of the company; a warrior and a psyker of tremendous power who lost half his face repelling the bloody abomination of Khorne called the Skulltaker; Tor himself forged and implanted the metallic half face of Ulfgerth as the heroic deed of the man saved his life when he was still an Iron priest.

“Good to see you alive, Iron wolf” half smile Ulfgerth, may half of his face be a mask devoid of any expression but it didn’t deprive the old priest to have quite the sense of humor in the middle of the Warp “So you found time to join us in our little meeting, uh?”.

“Someone has to put some common sense into such a bunch of grouchy old wolves” replied Tor without losing a beat, they were not only fellow Rune priests but good friends, specially after the battle on where Ulfgerth lost half his face “ it is a hard job; sometimes I need a sledge hammer and a steady hand to nail some into your thick skulls”.

The cracked laugh of the priest resonated in the clearing, advertizing the rest of the wolves of the presence of Tor; they retreat the barrier for a second so the last of the present Rune priests in the asteroid could join the war council.

Bulveye grunted a salute to Tor as the rest of his Storm claws, they were the elite of the company along the priests and the Wulfen; their company may not have numbers, but they do have fucking quality in spades.

“About time Iron wolf; I see this time we needed more time to maintenance of the gear, that or the loot has been awfully good ” mocked Sarek being there as representative of the Wolf priests; the rest of his brothers were deploying the Wulfen to the next portal location in the borders of the camp; just in the center of a very complex rune ward that Tor and the rest of the priest took an entire day to complete.

“Both” deadpanned Tor “ do not make me start on the status of the gear we have recovered from those pale shadows of a true astartes, puked from Biles last delusions of grandeur” sighed Tor and all the wolves shared a smile.

All of them have fought Bile imitations of space marines; a lot of them are nothing but failed experiments trying to recreate the astartes perfection; others are abominations that were physically more powerful than even a battle brother but their brains were so twisted in drugs and chemical ups that they had no discipline, nor battle wits beyond kill and rip anything in his sight. The most dangerous however were the upgraded humans he puked out of his labs from time to time; they were not as powerful as a full round astartes but are the brightest psychopaths the Empire had seen since Vandire.

“We are ready to move?” simply asked Bulveye, Tor was one of the few Iron priest of the company; no matter that he was now a Runic priest as he became a Psyker inside the Eye of Terror; the Wolf Lord was clever enough to know that true advice of how well your wargear was, values his weight in gold.

“As ready as we can, Wolf Lord” replied Tor with respect “ give me a good forge and I would even forge you a bloody Sicarian tank, but for the moment, all the equipment is repaired the best we can and we have more than enough supplies for an incursion, unless they manage to trap us for more than a week”.

Bulveye grunted; the report of the Iron priest now turned Runic priest was more or less what he expected; the Runes has told that the hunt will be good for the company but there was a last part of the prophecy that bothers the Wolf Lord and it was that the final verses of the prophecy told that the cost of the Great Hunt they have embarked will save the Empire from a great threat, but the 13º company will suffer an irreplaceable lost.

Usually that wouldn’t bother much the Wolf Lord; they job was to fight and die for the Empire. For Russ and the Allfather. But it means that Bulveye would lose something invaluable at the hands of the enemy. At first guess that would mean that the company will suffer great casualties or they will lose a Wolf priest and all the gene-seed stored into the Fang of Morkai will be lost. No matter the cause, the company will perform the hunt the tarot and the Runes has foretold them; after all they were wolves and a Great Hunt was too much of a challenge to simply let it pass. No matter the cost, the wolves will perform their duty as the Emperor and Russ made them into the Executioners of their will.

Bulveye was a Wolf Lord; he leaded the charge, first to enter, last to leave, he could send his wolf brothers to Khornes mouth and he knows that all of them will follow him, no question asked but now he was sending one of his men to a prophetic death and it bothers him to no end. That was not a warriors death. No wolf should die like this, Empyrean divination be damned; they should fell defying the destiny; Fate should be challenged with an ax in hand and a howl in the skies.

“We deploy in an hour; pick the packs and let us go hunt the last bastard; who is the last prey brothers?”.

A pair of Rune priest smiled and raised his faces from the conglomerate of runes in the floor.

“A daemon”.

  


Ilos/Planet surface/protean ruins/2183

  


“ _This was not the best of my ideas”_ recognized Shepard to herself on her mind, as she used her biotics to send bunches of geth flying trough the air, into a wall; smashing them into scraps;she hated the digital chirps they did instead of just screaming like a normal living being.

“I love this party Shepard” laughed the massive Krogan merc called Wrex, as he jumped out of his cover and shots several times his shotgun, at zero distance from a geth prime, destroying the synthetic like it was nothing “ I knew you would bring me to a good fight”.

“And the Krogan just being a krogan” mocked Garrus before putting a bullet into the bulb head of a geth walker collapsing it into a noisy pile of scrap metal.

“Ah, shut up Vakarian” grunted the big alien cooling his shotgun and looking for more enemies “ you are not fun”.

But after seeing the ground team quickly dispatch the opposition; he grumbled loudly as the fun has ended and compacted his shotgun to his back.

“Any wounds team?” ask Shepard cooling her pistol and with a smile on her face as the adrenaline was still high; she lived for this time; where all the stress and shit just went down the barrel of the gun into the face of the enemy.

“I’m fine” shrugged Garrus and Wrex simply snorted more loudly.

As krogan his regeneration could take care of almost any wound that would be not result in an instant death and his armor was not punctured, well not more than usual.

“Mako team status” ask Shepard by his communicator.

“We are fine Shepard just twitching at any sound and scared as hell but...” said the voice of Tali.

“We are fine Shepard; no hostile contacts so far” reported Kaidan with a more deep and rasp voice “ the scanners of the Mako don’t show anything”.

“Have you found anything Shepard?” said the rich and educated voice of Liara.

“Nah” replied Shepard “ apart from some geth troops nothing so far that could help us to open those damn doors”.

The ground team move around the protean place; the vegetation has won the war for the domain long ago and all the buildings surrounding them have all kind of alien vegetation crawling their surface. Liara has been like and school girl when they reached the planet and did her best to hide her enthusiasm about what they could found over the surface of the planet; after all, she was one of the top experts in the galaxy about Proteans and their culture. Leaving apart the fact that Saren was trying to blow up the universe, Ilos was like the holy grail to her and she was almost glued to her omnitool picturing and recording anything she could find during their time over the planet surface.

Shepard let her be; she was not a military but she was quite a capable adept by herself and could stand the ground like the best, like she demonstrated when she faced her own mother; an Asari matriarch of no little power; during the Feros fiasco with Benezia and the Rachni queen.

Mu relay and Ilos are treasures by themselves; resting place of the Proteans; full of history and knowledge left behind from the race that precede all of them into the Mass effect Relays and space travel. Shepard was much more interested on what the hell the Proteans where hiding here.

What was the conduit and what relation does it have with the reapers and the Proteans?, what does Saren pretend to do with it?, construct more Reapers?, start a war with the rest of the universe?, What is really the conduit?. A weapon?, tech?, an ark?...the lost Mu relay was a myth, something that serves for debate in the archeological circles to explain all kind of myths about the Protean disappearance and where the hell went such an advanced race.

The explanation was quite simple really; they were exterminated by the Reapers; murdered; methodically until they were extinguished by the living kilometer long synthetics known as the Reapers. Sovereign; Sarens flagship; was one of them and it looks like the Sovereign is just using the poor bastard to achieve whatever goals such monster could have in mind.

They reach an elevator and Shepard count her blessings when with a little of omnigel they put the damn millenia thing in motion; she was afraid that neither her nor Garrus would be able to make the damn thing work again. Garrus was a good mechanic and technician but he was not as good as Kaidan with the machines; Shepard on the other hand was a vanguard, she had no real knowledge of how the hell does these things works, apart from throwing inside the damn thing a ton of omnigel.

No way in hell was she going to call Kaidan or Tali at her position, losing a lot of time just because she found something she couldn’t repair; she would never ear the end of it. Kaidan and Garrus would never loss the chance to mock her to no end with such a thing. The invincible Commander Shepard was defeated by a simple elevator; no matter it was an elevator from a Protean ruins that could contain more fucking tech that all the systems of a frigate of the Alliance. The platform was surprisingly wide; the Mako would fit perfectly well inside the platform, taking the opportunity of the slow movement of the machine; Shepard run a quick scan over her equipment.

As almost any living being on the universe she had an omnitool but contrary to Kaidan, Garrus or Tali, herself was a civilian version with few military upgrades. Being a Council Spectre does have some useful perks like state of the art tech and weaponry. She must learn how to do some stunts, the rest could put out their sleeves; Overload charges are tha bomb against synthetics and a tech holographic armor like Kai uses, could help her a ton when she charges into close combat, as her Vanguard training kicks in.

The beep of the omnitool revealed that she was perfectly well; no damages on the armor, the weapons were cool; in all senses of the word; and no wounds, in resume the quick skirmish has been a complete success for the exploration team. Garrus was calibrating her HMWSR master line sniper; Shepard smiled internally; the Turian acted like a child on Christmas when Shepard brought him the latest and most lethal of the Sniper rifles the Spectres were using on the field nowadays. When she was in Citadel, she did pay a visit to the store, available only to the Spectres of the Council and despite the fortunes they cost, all the store goods were fucking worthwhile. After all she has gained a lot of credits for the Alliance, dragging her cute ass all over the universe, cleaning all kind of mess those fuckers of Cerberus, the geth, the merc bands, the batarian pirates or even the Alliance had stepped their noses into.

Admiral Hackett was more than happy to delegate all kind of bullshit on the Normandy, as they pass through any system, in search of clues about Saren and the Sovereign; and the payment was kind of good. Even the Spectres has to pay for their gear, and to be on top you need a lot of credit. She even had to travel to the moon to put down a rebel VI who has gone rogue, before it could scape from the training facility and reach the Extranet; the damage it could do could be catastrophic.

Or the stressful situation when a bunch of batarian wankers tried to land a meteorite on Terra Nova; the mission was a soft spot for her; she did all he could but at the end, she had to choose between saving people or killing the bakarian leader Balak; among the survivors was Kate Bowman, the woman who saw how Balak killed her brother before Shepard and her team continue shutting down the torches.

“ _Run, Balak, Run...I will found you and tear you a new one for what you did en X57”_ was the oath that Shepard made after all that fiasco; the colony was saved so much was true but Balak was still out there and there was no reasons to trust that the bastard wouldn’t pull out another stunt like that again.

Shepard was a good person at heart; no matter she could snap you in half with a biotic pull; and by so she tends to put the burden of anything that went wrong on a mission over her shoulders, despise it couldn’t be really her fault; she was one of the best CEO of the galaxy but at the same time, she burdened herself a lot too.

From the fiasco on Elysium; yeah they call her the Lioness of Elysium and all that shit, Lioness; where the hell did that came from?, she was red head and a spacer, what had that nothing to do with lions?, well, the nickname was cool, she was secretly very happy with the title; it had strength and sound kin of cool; The Lioness, but honestly she didn’t see any relation about how her actions in Elysium had nothing to do with a lioness.

“Eh, does anyone want to share their peoples history?” said Garrus putting the sniper rifle in standby position.

“God, no” chuckled Shepard

“Grumph” answered eloquently Wrex resuming his opinion.

“Oh, come on, I miss those chats in the elevators of the Citadel” said Garrus as response.

“Garrus you love to mess with people during the elevators travels in the Citadel” pointed Shepard “ Tali almost shot you once”.

Wrex laughed once; although it looked more a bark that an actual laugh.

“So disappointed” sighed the Turian adjusting something on his sempiternal blue eye visor.

Shepard chuckled again and the elevator doors opened to let the ground team enter into a big and spacious room full of flora; fortunately there was no Geth around and without any need of words, the team separated and covered the room; just in case there was any surprise hid for them.

Saren was a clever bastard; a top elite Spectre; even before he was indoctrinated by the Sovereign.

Something caught Shepard attention; there was a lot of broken pieces around the place; like there has been a battle here, but seeing the state of the screens and cables, it happened thousands of years ago.

“Found the switch” grunted Wrex and pull a console; in the distance; they could hear the sounds of the massive doors where the Mako were, opening.

“Ok, that does it, better move back to the Mako we need to catch Saren before he reachs the Conduit” ordered Jane.

“If he has already found it, we will be walking into a trap” added Garrus.

“My kind of party” added Wrex his two cents.

“That’s a risk we have to take” shrugged Shepard, knowing full well that this was a high risk mission but they were the only ones, who could do something about Saren and his plans.

But before any of them could move out of the room, a sudden light flashed in red; it appears like a broken drone; it blinked a couple of times before somehow estabilished himself and produce a quick series of noises.

“Hold on, what is that?” asked Garrus with the hand already on his pistol.

“ _Too late_ ” chirped the red drone before a long static crackle and then another series of words and phrases “ _invading fleet”_ another broken record “ _No scape”._

“What is that thing babbling about?” said Wrex with no interest in the red thing, now that he had Saren so close that he could almost feel his hands around the neck of the treacherous Turian spectre, Wrex had not time to lose in broken VI.

“What?” blinked Shepard “ I can understand it; it's a broken message, but is a warning about the Reapers”.

“You understand that gibberish, impressive” murmured Garrus.

“ _All hope lost...beyond the Ark files...The conduit...THEY CAN NOT BE STOP_ _PED_ _”_ continued the recording but for every useful word Jane could catch there was dozens lost in a static burst; the results were confusing to say the last.

“It says something about the conduit but the message is broken” shook her head Jane.

“Lest move on; Saren is waiting for us” said Wrex clearly impatient.

“Commander, good job with the door but we have company” said Kaidan by the radios as the sound of weapons being fired and the sound of the geth screech sounded in the background.

“Hold the position Kaidan, we are in our way” said Jane and started to run back to the Mako, if they lost the vehicle; all will be lost.

“Double time till the Mako, team” shouted Shepard, already pushing the button of the elevator.

“ _The hunt is ending and I will kill you Saren; double it for you,_ _Sovereign_ _, arrogant piece of scrap_ ” swore Jane in her mind.

  


Eye of Terror border/ _Beauty of Charadon_ (Space Hulk)/M42.003

  


“So disappointing” mocked Tor in loud voice as he sent a quick burst of bolter shells, to a pair of Bloodletters, destroying one of them with the fire before a Grey slayer from the squad near him, joined the fire; destroying the other daemon.

His pack, along Sarek Wulfens and a trusted member of Bulveyes Storm claws pack, has being charged with the toughest part of the mission; cleave a path through the demonic swarm, until they could reach and destroy the host before the Khorne demon known as the Doombreed could raise again, turning into an even worse nightmare, the last days of the 13 Black crusade.

The demon of Khorne could be the factor that decide the tides of the war against the Empire; as his only presence could transform entire planets into a bloodthirsty mass of psychopaths.

As the Despoiler has now a foothold in Cadia; the presence of the Doombreed could destroy the Pylons of Cadia, and by so, collapsing the Eye of Terror and allowing the Inmaterium to be poured into all the Cadia system; transforming it into a demonic world. Cadia will only be the beginning, as the Inmaterium could continue infecting the material realm until it reach Terra.

It was only one of the thousands plans the real masterminds behind the Despoiler had designed. As much as he wants to consider himself the supreme lord; Abaddon was nothing but a puppet in the strings of the Chaos gods, and they are really the ones who did the planning; Abaddon is only a powerful and ruthless warrior who had the unfortunate fate of being in the worst place at the worst moment.

Using a stolen Laser battery from a boarded Chaos cruiser for the last time the pack hunted during the most intense fights of the 13 Black crusade; they pierced the shell of the space hulk and opened a clear space; spacious enough for a portal from where the Astartes pack invaded the ship and start hunting the heretic aboard, responsible for the good going of the Doombreed summoning.

For what they have recall, there were thousands of heretics on board; making those numbers, mostly with mutants, traitor guardsman and a warband of the Khorne berserkers; not counting the possible demons they could have already summoned, along the sacrifice of a thousand prisoners, in order to imbue enough energy to a specially prepared host, to be able to channel the power of the Doombreed.

The pack was exhilarating, that was a great hunt; demons and traitor marines are one of the best prey they are. They are a challenge, however, the rest of the mutants; being an exception the super mutants the size of ogrins; were an annoying swarm that kills you by simply numbers. Pretty much like those gigantic cockroaches of the Tyranids that they encountered outside the Eye of Terror during the hunts they have to take outside the Eye of terror, as their preys flees to the material world believing they will be safe out there.

Big fucking mistake; it only annoys the wolves even more having to leave their hunting ground, as they promise to Russ to hunt them anywhere they could be. There are some good things out there although; catching up with the rest of the universe is one of them; despite being an eternal hunt in the Eye of Terror, all of them still remembers Fenris and their promise to protect the Empire; one can only protect what he knows; being in the ignorance would only give reason to the stereotype, that believe the wolves are only a bunch of retarded barbarians who can only swing an ax and fell drunk under the table.

The rest of the loyal Legions seems to believe that bullshit; specially those emo wankers of Caliban; they often forgot one simple truth. The six legion were the executioners of the Astartes; they were made to be capable of do things the rest can't or would want to do; as simply as that. And the 13º Company; The Wulfen, were the best among the best in that regard...let see how many of the other Legions would have been capable of surviving in the Eye of Terror for ten thousand fucking years, without any more resources that they could provide themselves and still be capable of became the boogie man of the boogie men of the Empire.

Not half an hour later and the company has already cut in half the enemy numbers inside the space hulk and that’s when the things got interesting; pushed by a tight schedule, they started to send demons and the bersekers into the dozen combat spots along the space hulk.

Tor had already fried the mind of a cultist, searching for leaders and paladins; doing the same to a berseker of Khorne; specially if he was a champion of a paladin; was kind of impossible. Their god patron made them highly resilient to psy powers and any kind of sorcery and by so, penetrating their tainted minds required a good damn amount of effort and will power, along a lot if time locked in a telepathic attack to the frenzied mind of the victim.

The key of the invasion was hit and run tactics that allow the pack to reach their objectives and then move to another place of the space hulk preventing the chaos forces to caught them into an attrition battle that the pack will lose for sure.

That’s why Tor and half a dozen Rune priests were in command of the forces, as they could open a portal and left the battlefield before the worst happens; all the company was eternally grateful for Russ to teach them the way of the Portal; a more powerful, unique variant of the psy power that the masters of telekinetic way of the psykers had under their belts. A howl resonated in the battlefield and Tor raised his wolf helmet, raising a brown inside the armor; that was Sareks howl and it was calling the rest of the company to retreat; considering what they had battled so far, it was kind of odd; if anyone called Sarek coward he or she would be dead in a blink, but for the Wolf priest to make this call, means they have found something the pack must see or left before something happen that could jeopardize the hunt.

Tor moved mentally the servo-arm with the plasma cutter and destroyed one door of the bay where him and his pack had ambushed a band of bloodletters and bersekers, killing them before they could even react to the menace; appearing from thin air and raining bolt shells until there was nothing left but gory chunks. The door collapsed, along good part of the corridor behind it, preventing the appearing of reinforcements; perhaps the demons could bend reality at their will, but the berserkers couldn’t and the mutants and heretic cannon fodder, even less.

As soon as he finished his work, he started to focus on the creation of a Portal; he remembered the last position of Sarek and the status of his Wulfen squad in the battle screen inside of his helmet, they were marked as green status and near them. Tor raised _Redstorm,_ channeling his will inside the weapon and moving it in a wide circle; the blue and black hole in the reality appeared, allowing the pack to get out of there and appear in the position of Sareks Wulfens. The broadsword wasn’t only a powerful force weapon but a wonderful tool to channel and control his psyker powers; there was part of his soul inside the crimson metal and black runes of the weapon when he forged it, with his own hands, as one of the trials he had to pass to gain the title of Rune priest.

The Grey slayers didn’t say a word and crossed the portal double time, with their weapons ready; as much of the rest of the company; these veterans carried a lot of wargear, from bolters to more unique weapons as meltas and plasma guns, along a good sort of close combat weapons from patched chain axes to power weapons like maces and swords. The Grey slayers soon learned to loot all they can and use it against the traitors; however, none of them was dumb enough to carry a demonic weapon or anything of the sort; that would only lead all demons on the Inmaterium to them and in the end tainting him beyond redemption.

Tor entered in the Portal the last; retracting the servo-harness extra appendages and weapons; closing it behind him.

As soon as he entered the same space than the rest of his pack, he stopped, frozen in his tracks and let a small growl scape from his throat and into the vox of his wolf shaped helmet.

“Eldars” was the name hidden in the growl.

Inside a long room on the space hulk, two dozen of astartes of the 13º company of the Sixth Legion were standing alert, with their weapons more than ready to unleash a storm of bolter shells, plasma and melta beams; in front of half a hundred eldars dressed in black armors with the symbols of the Craftworld Ulthwé. As the astartes had their weapons ready for anything, so were the warriors of the Eldars counting among their numbers a dozen dark reapers and a band of surprisingly silent Banshees, but what stood more among them was the figure of their leader.

“ _A damn Farseer”_ thought Kyrll and Sarek at the same time, when the figure revealed herself “ _those are never good news”_

The eldar female wore a hard black skintight amour and a black eldar icon covered, long black sleeves coat; at her hips hung a long and curved blade that irradiated power; reflecting the low lights of the room and the flames of the flamethrowers of the Grey slayers; her helmet was white; long and expressionless, only a pair of red lenses, with a single black tear running down the right eye, ending in a long red ponytail that reached the end of her back.

For any other, the woman would be stunningly beautiful; all her body was perfectly proportionate and effeminate; with more than enough curves to need some force of will to move the eyes to her face; with the grace of a skilled dancer and regal manners on her steps, that spokes volumes of her.

“Peace, Gaur” said the eldar female as she stepped out of the safety of her troops and put herself in front of the wolves, she raised both arms to show that she was unarmed “we don’t seek battle”.

Her voice was soothing and fluid, a common person will be drooling about how melodic it sounded; however, if she tried to soothe the astartes in front of her with it, it was a complete waste; they had suffered better tries at the voices of Slannesh demons and the demons had ended in the bad side of a power ax. The real shock happened when Tor gave a step ahead of his brother and taking the helmet down, so the Farseer could saw the wolfish traits of Tor; he just talk in a strongly accented eldar language.

“What, in the name of the All-father, are the warriors of Ulthanas Shelwe doing here?”.

For the eldar point of view, the universe did collapse a little when Tor talk; the stoic Farseer froze in the site; if she wasn’t wearing her helmet her jaw with be trying to reunite with the floor below; still processing that the Gaur had used Eldar language, strong accented; as he is completely incapable of pronounce it correctly; but otherwise perfectly fine.

The rest of the eldar were in a similar state of horror and shock; none other mon-keighs, except the few the high Farseer allowed to visit the Black library, could speak the eldar native tongue so fluently.

“H-How?” stuttered the Farseer betraying her own stoic and regal appearance for a second, as she must know how was something like this possible.

All the divination said that she would meet and ally in the wolves, the one who would give the eldar the victory in this battle, will be a man who has a wolf on his soul and she would meet the person who would have her fate at his hands; it was not clear for good or bad.

“Exodites” shrugged Tor putting his hand, relaxed, but in the handle of _Redstorm_ , the weapon was buzzing relentless as it wanted to fight, not to chat “ we save one of your colonies from a demon pet of _She who Thirst,_ when we were hunting her and I was there, the day one of your poor sods called Eldrad has to raid Arach-Cyn for spirit stones or something like that; not really sure what those were but he taught me the basic, so we don’t screw each other missions or loose time with charades”.

To say the eldars were freaking out would be an understatement.

Farseer Ayisha; Disciple of Farseer Kauerith was at lost of words; her mind was a complete turmoil; this was madness, pure and simply madness, a mon-keigh?...er a Gaur most correctly, was capable of speaking Eldar?, and what was worst, his Gaur warriors have saved an exodite planet and those retards taught them the sacred language; even that moron of Eldr...wait.

“Eldrad?, as in Eldrad Ulthuan?” asked with fear Ayisha.

“I think so, it was thousands of year ago” replied Tor “ we have been fighting in the Sea of souls since the Horus Heresy, eldar”.

“What are you doing Tor?” asked suddenly Sarek in fenrisian to the Rune priest “what on earth are you talking about?”.

“They want to know how is it possible that I can speak eldar” answered Tor “I think I broke them when I told them how we saved some eldar farmer sorry asses out there and they taught me as reward” laughed the rune priest.

Sarek was not in the pack in those times; such a swift force like the 13th company could be separated in packs that could take care of different missions at the same time and then regroup after the job is done; but he did remember that Tor has already told something among those lines in the Saga of Harald Thunderbreath and how he slayed the demoness Lillastrazza; a Slannesh champion.

“Whatever” chuckled the Wolf priest enjoying the view of the arrogant pricks at a loss of words “ what did they want?”.

“No idea” answered Tor “ but we are losing a precious time here; if they want to help us good, if not we kill them all and continue our mission” said Tor with the practice of one that has done a lot of similar things in the past.

Even after ten thousand years hunting traitors inside the Eye of Terror, every time they went out of the place in a hunt; and for intel and all the supplies they could find; half of the time the Empire forces believe they were some kind of renegade Space wolves invading the Imperial space. So they were accustomed to being double crossed by even supposedly allies; add to this the already proved duplicity of the Eldar and the wolves were more than ready for a quick extermination and keep going like nothing has happened here.

“So, eldar” turned Tor to the freaked out eldar, who was commanding her troops and reassuring them that the mission continued, no matter the oddities they could found in the way.

Ayisha stiffened when she eared the voice of the Gaur in command and turned her face to the astartes.

“What do you want from us?” asked Tor in a commanding and resonating voice, that made the eldar and the astartes tense and prepare for the violence that may come next.

“I advise you Eldar, if you pretend to stop the hunt we will show no mercy” advised Tor in a cold tone that make Ayisha gather all her force of will not to shudder.

She has only felt such fear when she crossed her path with a chaos paladin of the Black Legion, back, when she was still a Farseer apprentice under the guidance of Farseeer Kauerith.

“No Gaur, no, we are not here to stop you but to help you” assured Ayisha with all the confidence he could muster, taking reassurance on the fact that they outnumber the gaurs, four to one and in an enclosed space like these, the howling banshee will tear the astartes apart.

Except, perhaps, for the little fact that there were a dozen Wulfens, and the astartes had enough flamers to turn the place into a living inferno in less than a second, but the Farseer was confident that if the things went south; they could kill the astartes and proceed with the banishment of the demon.

“Our leader had seen that the raise of the Doombreed, as you call this demon, will renew again all the crusade of the Despoiler in Cadia and this time, they will succeed, as the presence of the demon will break the equilibrium in Cadia and let the Eye of Terror, expand beyond its actual limits” announce the Farseer and Tor grunt once; so much they had already supposed, but now, they had another confirmation.

“We will guide your forces to the main chamber and help you vanquish the host, before the demon could set a foothold in this realm” said Ayisha as her leader has told her to inform the mon-keigh they were supposed to find, instead of this bloody Gaurs.

This astartes are completely different from the brutes she has found in all her years; they do look like ragged barbarians and they do act like ones, but they have been fighting non-stop for more years than almost any eldar alive; all of them inside the Eye of Terror and they still persevere; that spoke volumes of their will and capacity as warriors.

“If you want to join the hunt, you are welcome eldar” growl Tor.

The Farseer turn to her troops and start deploying them so they could run to the main chambers and put and end to this.

Neither the Farseer, neither Tor have idea of what has the fate stored for them.

 

Ilos/Chamber of Virgil/2183

  


“Keelah....” whispered Tali after the VI Virgil, the last piece of tech, the Protean left to tell the history of the death of his people, ended his tale about the fall of the Protean Empire and what is going to happen when Saren and the Sovereign achieves their goals.

“By the goddess” muttered Liara whipping a tear from her blue eyes, all her life, the archeologist wanted to know more of the race that preceded them in the galactic space but discovering their tragic past was not what he expected.

“Harvested” summed Garrus in a low voice “ Spirits that’s harsh...”.

“That’s put it mildly, Garrus” whispered Kaidan “ I can not even imagine what kind of fire power you need to wipe out an empire like the Protean”.

Virgil moved and twisted around himself; the reflection of the life in the surface of the red lights allow Shepard to see how the revelation of the final destiny of the Protean race has shock deeply even Wrex, who had a deeper scold than the usual.

Jane was as freaked out as the rest of her crew; a race of sentient machines harvested the galaxy every fifty thousands years for reasons unknown; the last ones were the Proteans, the ones from practically all tech of the universe comes from. Actually, it had a lot of sense; a honey trap; all the tech is just a single big bear trap that would call the Reaper directly into the head of all the political and military power of the galaxy, wiping out the leaders before they have even the most remote chance of do nothing.

Shepard shuddered when he pictured the image of what a dozen of ships like the Sovereign could do, along a geth flotilla, appearing just in the middle of the Citadel; the casualties will be count by the millions and there was nothing anyone could do, as the Citadel was the same thing that controls the mass relay of the system.

Cut the head before they attack did even commence; Shepard was impress and terrified at the same time by the cunning of the Reapers; they have prepared a galactic harvesting every fifty thousand years; who knows how many civilizations had already fallen to them?, were the keepers one of the first races in the galaxy?, now reduced to nothing more than mechanical slaves who seek the correct functioning of the hugest trap in the galaxy.

“How can we prevent it?” asked Shepard in loud voice “ how can we trump the plans of the Soverign?, come on Virgil, there must a way to save the fucking galaxy!” shouted Shepard to the VI who stood there glowing in a fading red light.

“The creators sabotaged the relay” announced the VI and the crew raised their head with a tiny bit of hope in her eyes “ as the extermination of the protean empire continued for centuries; the Ilos personnel sleep in cryo pods but the energy run low and sacrifices should be made, so the key personnel could survive”.

Shepard listened attentively to the tale of the VI, if he gives her anything to put an end to the apocalypse Sovereign is planned, it was more than welcome.

“They used the conduit; a prototype mass relay; to open a one-side tunnel directly into the Mass relay inside the Citadel”.

“What?” asked Kaidan “ there is no mass relays on the citadel, they could control the relay in the system but the Citadel is nor big enough, nor spacious enough to house a Mass relay and the traffic the relays had”.

“There is one but we never saw it for what it was” interrupted Garrus widening the eyes “ Spirits; it was always in front of our eyes and we never saw it”.

“What are you talking about Garrus?” asked Shepard looking at the Turian with a curious expression.

“Presidium” said the officer of Sig-C.

All the crew thought about the place for a second and they swore loudly in their home languages, when they get what Garrus was implying; that was the perfect entry point for a small force in the very center of the Presidium. The monument of the mass relay in the Presidium it wasn’t a statue; it was a damn fucking real mass really; the one that Saren is going to use, to slip himself and a bloody army of geth into the presidium, with all easiness of the universe, despite the blockade the Council has put in the system.

“Keelah” said Tali “ I always thought it was a statue; how come no one has ever see what it really was?”.

“Because the Mass relays are still big unknowns to us” explained Kaidan “ no race, except perhaps the Asari, had really an idea about how to built one or how does the thing worked and all the mass relays we know are kilometers long space hulks and not a dozen meters metallic statue on a park”.

“Oh...” understood Tali the reasoning.

“The survivors were less than a dozen” continued the VI “ not enough for re-population purposes but they could do one last act of war against the Reapers; they took the conduit and entered into the Citadel, sabotaging the signal that would made the keepers open the relay in the Citadel and bring back from dark space the rest of the Reapers”.

“But?...” asked Shepard looking for the catch.

“The Conduit it was a one way travel mass relay; the survivors knew that they will be trapped inside of the empty Citadel but Soverign couldn’t reach the keepers; the signal that the Reaper sent to the keepers was ignored by the alien race and by so he had to remade his plans”.

“Soverign, despite all his power, is only one Reaper; the Council fleet could destroy him, however, if he slips an agent through the Conduit relay, it could take control of the Citadel and transfer said control to the Sovereign, allowing him to open the path to the rest of the Reapers in Dark space to enter and start the harvesting once again”.

“Fuck” resumed the thoughts of all the group Kaidan into a single word.

“Double fuck” added Shepard “ Saren could already be on the Citadel as we are here, trapped” grunted Jane.

The beeping of her omnitool called her attention as the tech device start to glow dangerously red by a sudden overload of information into the simple device. Tali and Kaidan glow theirs too scanning the problem.

“Huh?.” from time to time, even the all powerful Vanguard and star of the N7 program, was at lost of worlds.

Specially when someone losses her with the jargon of a profession or very technical speech about something, but in this case it was simple because the damn thing that she just used for civilian commodities, now contained a shit ton of Protean data.

“This will grant you full access to the Citadel control system, use it to stop Sovereign and avenge the Proteans...” soon the red glow of Virgil fade into nothingness as the last power cells of his console run empty, silencing the thousands years old VI; he has achieved his purpose and now he could deactivate at last.

Tali run some scans on Shepards omnitool as Garrus and Liara where looking for the core of the VI, if they manage to take it as proof, all the councilors would have to admit the existence of the Reapers and took some damn measures about it, already.

Liara had much more scholar interest but the feeling was similar; the treasure of knowledge that the VI beacon contained made her head spin but at the same time, she must remembered herself, that they were at the verge of being harvested like the Proteans were.

“The shield is down!” shouted Kaidan looking at the Mako and pointing it with his omnitool “ we can pass now”.

“About time” grunted Wrex.

The team run to the Mako but before they could reach the vehicle, they could see a lot geth waiting for them; without a word, the team release some of their frustrations; the hunt has been long and now all of them knows that the bets has gone higher. Before, it was only a rogue spectre; now he threatened the galaxy with the complete extinction if they didn’t stop the Turian before he could relinquish the control of the Citadel to the living space ship called Sovereign. Shepard threw a geth trooper into the air and shoot him several times with her pistol; Wrex war cry resonated nearby, before the massive krogan stomped a pair of geth and shoot his shotgun at point blank range, destroying them into pieces.

Tali send and overload to a geth walker and Garrus put a bullet through his light bulb, smashing the head of the walker from the inside; Liara pushed the carcass with her biotics launching it to another group of geths; slamming them to a wall, so Kaidan could shoot several rounds into the pile of metal bodies, destroying them for good. They did quick work of the fist wave, but there was a dozen more geths incoming and Shepard knew that all of them were nothing more than distractions.

She looked beyond, and in the distance, she could saw Saren and a numerous group of geth entering into a long pillar that resembled a lot a mass relay; the bastard Turian watch back and smirked at the image of her struggling to rip a geth trooper into pieces. Saren ordered a bunch of troops to prevent Shepard to follow him at any cost and enter the light of the conduit; as soon as he stepped into the light, a pillar of light flared from the swirling core of the conduit into deep space.

“Shit” thought Shepard and launched the most powerful biotic wave he could muster, sending all geth in her path flying in all directions like crash dummies.

“All into the Mako!” ordered Shepard “ Kaidan to the helm, Garrus the cannon, Tali get the shields up and ready, Wrex to the machine gun, Liara you and me Biotic barriers; We have to reach that conduit and we are going to do it wild ride style” ordered the woman and the team moved as fast as they could; Garrus and Wrex where grinning like madmen and Kaidan step the metal, ready to rode over all the geths in his way.

“Don’t stop the vehicle for nothing, we must reach the conduit before it closes so Canadian; time to hit the road and hit it hard ”.

“Yes m´am” laughed Kaidan and put the Mako into a straight line to the conduit.

Garrus shots cleaned the path, as Wrex laughed all the time when he shot the machine gun sowing the lesser geth troops on their path; the geth did their best to stop them but despite the fire power they put on their attacks, between Liaras and Shepard biotic barriers and Talis managing of the Mako shield they couldn’t stop the heavy APC to finally reach the light and being sent after Saren in another shoot of light.

  


Eye of Terror border/ _Beauty of Charadon_ (Space Hulk)/M42.003

  


Tor decapitated the berseker in front of him and send his body flying trough the air, into a mass of cultists, broking bones and smashing their flesh. When they tried to get rid of the heavy corpse, he shot the bolter plus melta gun weapon on her metallic hand, to the pile of bodies, tearing them apart with the bolter shells explosions. He pointed the weapon to the left and pulled the trigger again, but this time was the melta cannon under the cannon of the bolter the one that send a searing light and wave of heat into a mass of Khone cultists leaded by another berserker; this one dressed with a blasphemous and ragged dreadnought class power armor.

His gun cleave a path among them, vaporizing their bodied like they were drawings under an eraser and making a meter size hole in the chest of the berseker; he just stumbled a little and fall like a chopped three.

Tor clicked his tongue inside of the helmet; his flamethrower was burning cultists in one fell swoop of burning promethium but his servo-arms were already enough damaged to retract; not to mention his plasma-cutter was in the verge of overheating; and by so exploding; if he doesn’t cool it already.

He left his bolter maglocked in his back; safe locked to the servo-harness and with easiness, picked the discarded chainax of the decapitated berseker; he used the promethium left in the flamethrower of his servo-arm and force a bit the plasma-cutter, to burn and melt all khorne symbols on the weapon. It was a work made in the middle of the battle, but that was no excuse to do something shabby.

All the weapons retracted to his back; once they end their work; leaving him armed with a bloodied and happy _Redstorm_ on his right hand and a smoking and red hot chainax devoid of any markings on his left cybernetic arm.

Tor was happy; they have been fighting for less than fifteen minutes and he has already claimed the life of a champion of khorne and a hundred cultists; not to mention the price of the hunt was at his sight. As strange it could sound; the eldar has been true to his word and guided them to the main chamber of the space hulk, were a little army of chaos marines and heretics, were watching over a thousand of sacrifices as the host of Doombreed was inside the chaos octagon, drinking the blood of the recently slitted neck of a pregnant woman. The picture didn’t even shackle the attackers a bit; they have seen worst and for the eldar, it was just another irrelevant mon-keigh killing another mon-keigh.

Living in the realm of the nightmares really did a number on your empathy; not to mention ones are aliens and the other genetically engineered soldiers who had lost long ago any fear they could fell.

The eldar provided quite the fire support, as they Howling Banshees cleared a path in the middle of the army, chopping down anything on their path, their mistress; the Farseer Ayisha; was busy sending a shredding psy storm into the mist of the army but unfortunately any kind of psy power will see his effectiveness greatly reduced by the presence of the icons of Khorne.

The blood god hated sorcery and psykers with a passion, as he saw it like a weakness to a true warrior; he respected martial prowess and strength above all and Doombreed was a split image of his demon god; the monster could tear apart a planet with his presence alone and by so, rending almost any psyker useless or trying to rip their owns brains out as the warp from where all them extract powers suddenly becomes against them.

The battle had started well, but Tor had already done the calculations, they could maintain this pace for another ten minutes before the superior numbers of the cultists mass turns against them and push them back. Killing the astartes among the heretic has been a tactical decision; they could lead the charge and put order in the disarray mass of heretics, shortening the time frame they had to finish the mission and left this place, before the second team of wolves blow this space hulk into oblivion.

At the end it will be decided by the sword; just like Russ loved to do things; and that thought make Tor smile, at the time he made a wide arc with his new ax, gutting a pair of heretics that tries to put a mine on the back of his servo-harness.

He would have done the same, if he was against a Warsmith or another kind of Techmarine traitor, it was a solid strategy; after all the servo-harness was a voluminous piece of gear; even in its compact form with tools and weapons retracted; and it could be considered a tactical disadvantage but the extra four, combat ready, arms and the possibility of make all kind of combats reparations and sabotage work; compensate more than enough the possible setbacks.

With fresh blood dripping from the teeth of his weapon, Tor pushed the trigger of the ax, making the teeth of the blade grind any flesh remnants inside the mechanism of the ax and readied himself for the incoming close combat, as more and more he got closer to the host. He opened his senses to the surrounding Warp; putting in actions all the Rune wards he had inside of his helmet, to prevent any foul play for the uncountable inhabitants of the Warp; so he could muster his power and unleash it to his enemies.

He raised _Redstorm_ over his head and channel a lot of psy power into the sword; soon a dozen of red lightnings came out of the sword, raining over all the obstacles in his way, vaporizing anything that was not resilient to the psy power. Twenty five heretics died burned; vaporized or explode into a mass of gore and charred flesh, but despite all the power poured into the lighting; a couple of berserkers just ignored the bolts, as golden runes engraved on their power armors, dispelled the energy before it could harm them.

Tor smiled widely and howled in defiance as he charged forward.

The bersekers answered a howl of their own and charged forward too, gripping more strongly the handles of their more decorated and gore covered chainaxes.

The trio of titans clashed in thunderous clang, that broke the bones of the lesser heretics that surrounded them; the aura of power of Tor, an aura of electric red flames; opposed to the gory and wet sickness that surrounded the pair of berserkers.

 _Redstorm_ and the chainax moved in synchrony, repelling and dodging the mad swings of the bersekers in front of him; all the combatants used a very similar style of combat, based on overpowering the opponent, breaking the guard of the enemy before killing it, with a single and devastating strike.

Ayisha on the other hand was more than a dancer; leading her Howling Banshees, she could see the outcome of the battle and send her trusted warriors to the place where they could do more damage, but no matter how fine your pinpoint divination is; trying to check a thousand threads of destiny simultaneously, is quite taxing. Specially, if you are controlling at the same a psy storm, tossed into the middle of the enemy lines; and she remembered a bit to late, the damned interference the bloodied chaos god produce in any psy power but the storm was already butchering the numerous chaos worshipers mon-keighs and the Gaur were doing quite the good job in keeping the reinforcements at bay and opening a path to the host.

This Gaur were the best tools Ayisha could have ever hoped to find; leaving apart the initial shock of the Gaur with psy powers being capable of speaking eldar. This astartes were a very different batch than the usual that roams the space nowadays; so full of themselves and their xenophobia when they were nothing but another; yet incredible resilient and sturdy; kind of mon-keigh.

She moved her blade in a wide arc; dancing with her banshees in a beautiful dance of death and carnage; the blood fly through the air, when the humming and singing blades of the eldar women touch the flesh of their enemies. Among them; like the key dancer of a dance show; was Ayisha, leading the performance, reinforcing one flank, torching a heretic group before they could break the formation of the Bansheess; shooting a bolt of pure power to a mutant thing with a grenade launcher so it could not attack the Reapers containing the reinforcements beyond the chamber.

Jumping in a spectacular display of acrobatics, she landed in the middle of a covered group of heretics with bastardized laser gun that the mon-keigh favored and she spun and danced, rewarding all of them with a deadly wound; before the corpses could even touch the floor, she was already back among her warriors with another elegant jump that left a tiny trail of blue energy behind her.

The resonating clangs of the psy weapon of the Gaur leader called her attention; he was fighting at a peace and rythim that she has never seen before, she doubted that even the Exarch Fyera at her side, could equal the pure power that the trio of monsters were displaying.

She glanced the future; a quick and half a second duration peek into the Gaur future and saw him howling and charging again; so that means he was going to win his battle against the pair of tainted buffed mon-keighs. Part of her was happy to see that the man was all she needed and more, but she had to admit, that there was something more inside the man that scared the hell out of her; nothing daemonic, no, the man wasn’t tainted at all; kind of impressive considering how his Gaurs has been fighting for thousands of years inside the realm of souls and still only those werewolf like things dressed like them, seems to be affected by the taint of the Warp.

Contrary to the belief of her previous master and Leader Kaurith; the mon-keigh had a potential that they simple decided to ignore stubbornly, blinded by their faith in that god-emperor of them. Ayisha has studied a little the mon-keigh culture and found fascinating and disgusting at the same time; they have all the flaws of the old eldar empire yet none of them give up and continue struggling in a galaxy that rejects them; with their blindness and greed they only fuel more and more the Chaos gods.

The sound of a ton of metal slamming against the floor called her back from her mussing; even in her trance state she has continued killing the heretics, getting closer and closer to the limit of the octagon where the host has already guttered the pregnant woman with his own hand and take out the fetus, engraving with a long nail, a lot of marks on the little body; the symbols wounded the eye of the viewers.

As the banshees keep a defensive formation around her; cutting down anyone stupid enough to try to interrupt her mistress as she takes down the sorcery that surrounded the octagon ritual; Ayisha raised her witchblade and pierced the runes in front of her, pouring as much as power as she could in their own banishment runes, engraved in the blade flat side. She noticed that the power of the blasphemous runes was too much for her; in time she could have disabled and banish the circle of incantation but time was something she couldn’t have in this moment ; however, suddenly a powerful and fresh wave of energy hit the wards of the octagon, joining her in the effort of collapsing the sorcery circle.

The red broadsword of the Gaur was hitting the edge of the circle from the other side of the hundred meter diameter octagon, pouring as lot as power as he could muster; the felling was like the winds of a storm, furious yet clean and powerful; together, their combined power did short work of the Chaos wards and soon all the golden symbols of the edge of the octagon, melted; torched by the power of the Rune priest and the Farseer.

The host stop engraving runes in the dead fetus and throw the unborn child near the gutted and dried corpse of the mother; he faced the two intruders alternatively, and both of them noticed the distorted face of the officer of this ritual.

He was some kind of mutant; big as an ogrin, with a skin that looks made of patched skins from tanned ones to green tones of an ork like shade of green; all the different skins were patched to the body with long golden stitches that crudely meld together the flesh and the patches. All his face was a long maw devoid of lips, with long and sharp serrated teeth and from the sides of the head of the monster, there was several, bone made, protuberances that ended in spines, constantly dripping blood from inside of the twisted body of the abomination. The body was anthropomorphic but deformed to an engrossed, muscular, mass that could make an ogrin look weak and slender; he was shoeless and their feet nails were more like twisted claws.

All the abomination wore; was a simple long sleeveless coat, drenched in gore and dry blood from untold victims, only the blasphemous icons of his demonic patron khorne glow in golden over all the bloody stains.

“A pitiful dog and one of those Slannesh little wenches” the voice of the abominations crawled inside their minds like a thousand of worms over their flesh “ your blood will be poor sacrifice to the glorious one but it will be enough payment for your...”

The words of the thing were forever lost as he was slammed by a heavy piece of scrap launch by the angry Farseer, much to the approval of Tor who was already stepping into the octagon, burning all the icons on his path and reading the pair of weapons in his hands to kill this wretched thing.

The Farseer was about to do the same but no demon spawn call her wench as walks away free; so she took the biggest and heaviest piece of scrap he could find and smashed it into the ugly face of whatever the hell this thing was. The abomination just toss the scrap on top of him and faced the two intruders into the octagon of Khorne; this pitiful souls had dared to interrupt the glorious return of the Doombreed whose real name was sacred and only Great Khorne could pronounce without breaking by the sheer power he hides on his name.

The first one that reached him was the Slaneesh wench, one of those eldar that created that stain in the realm of souls, when they twisted their massive empire into a quest to achieve carnal pleasures and hedonistic satisfaction.

Ayisha danced around the hulking beast; never in the same spot twice, dodging the claws and spines of the monsters; she pierced the back of the thing and took good note that this was not daemon; no matter how he pretend to be otherwise; but a powerful mutant. His flesh was solid and real, not the strange and unnatural flesh of the inhabitants of the Warp.

She spun her weapon; in a blinding motion; pouring some power into the blade and cut the tendons of the beast, he roared, and tried to pin her with his great claw like hands. The blade did cut the flesh and leave a long gash in the legs of the thing but to the surprise of Ayisha; who barely dodged a furious back slap with an acrobatic back flip, good thing she was so flexible after her time as dancer, when she took the path of the artisan back on Ulthwé at the beginning of her life.

She landed only to sense the mass of the Gaur charging directly to the beast, howling like a wolf who has found a prey; the abomination received the charging astartes with a claw swipe but Tor blocked the attack with the chainax; locking the claw; and swinged the buzzing red broadsword on his right time in a cleaver path from left to right. The sword screeched when the power on him tried to surpass the unholy hardness of the mutant skin; the mutant roared and clawed the side of the mask of Tor, leaving two deep lines under the left side of the mask.

Both fighters separated from each other after this first exchange; Ayisha meanwhile, start to focus on her runes, she quickly traced runes over her sword and over her heart; quickly pouring power into her.

She knows that the monster would be almost impossible to vanquish in duel as all his essence will repel any psy power than she could throw at him, but making her body stronger, faster, seeing the threads of destiny and pick up the best strikes and spots to his weak points; that was as easy as breath for a Farseer; and once again she must thanks the towering Gaur for the precious time he was buying her to use her power and put the fate on her side on this battle.

Tor keep attacking the abomination with relentless determination; if the beast believes that the poor mortal could keep up with his strength and power he was going to get a nasty surprise. It could be difficult to bring out the powers of the Warp around this khorne octagon but Tor managed to gather enough power for one last push; making his body as strong as steel.

That was the origin of his most renowned title; when he awakened as psyker his first power was the ability to empower his body to the point that he ripped the arm of a demon prince with pure, brute force alone; his skin took the black tone of iron, so the rest of his brother start to call him Iron wolf.

He changed the attack pattern and thrust Redstorm into the gut of the abomination; he slapped the sword and cut a deep gash in Tors armor, managing to making Tor bleeds despite all his enhanced resilience but that feint let him open for a descending strike of the chainax into the crock of his neck; the teeth of the ax screeched and the abomination howled in pain, when they managed to pierce his skin; goring his shoulder and neck.

The abomination kicked the knee of Tor and despite his new hardened body, it managed to make him kneel; he tried then to bite his head off with his grotesque maw but he had tobackpedal when the blade of _Redstorm_ appeared from under his head and almost pierce trough his neck, throat and head in a powerful upward strike.

A shadow appeared on his left; only to him to sense the witchblade of the wench piercing his back and failing his spine by millimeters; he was blessed by demon like flesh, but he was still mortal, so a deathly wound was still among his worries no matter how high could he put himself above the common mortals.

The sword cut his flesh and the abomination moved quick enough to catch the hand of the eldar before she could retreat the sword and then pierced the chest of the eldar with his free claw. The mirage of the eldar disappeared and, confused, he looked around before he sensed a piercing sensation in both legs, falling to his knees as both his legs tendons has been cut by a force sword burning his blessed demonic flesh beyond regeneration.

He promised himself that after he summoned the Glorious one, he would inflict the most horrible torments he could muster in the wench body for this desecration. A roaring called his attention, as he faced the astartes with the rune sword, making a descending double strike with both weapons to his head; he raised his claws to grab the astartes wrists and then rip his throat with his teeth; restoring his demonic powers with the crimson blood from a fresh body.

He managed to catch the descending weapons but before he could whip his jaw to the throat of his enemy, Tors knee busted his lower mandible with enough force to break his teeth and almost broke his neck backwards; letting go of the weapons they completed the arc,

 _Redstorm_ bite hungrily over the previous wound on the neck and the ax hit the other part of the thick neck of the creature; after a couple of seconds of intense struggling, the head of the abomination went flying in a fountain of gore and blood.

Ayisha followed the trail of the head and pointing at it with her witchblade, a burst of blue flame burned the head till only a few ashes landed into the wrecked octagon.

However, the celebration came short when the blood and the flesh of the abomination inflated grotesquely and exploded in a twister of blood and flesh that covered the octagon, before Tor or Ayisha could get out of the ritual place. A monstrous voice echoed trough the place, putting on their knees astartes, eldar and heretic per equal; the tone spoke of death and gore, of crimson blood from a ripped flesh; burned with hate and pain.

“You mortals has cost me dearly; once again I am denied to walk among your pathetic realm so I can show you the true meaning of power, so be it; if you banish me, then I will banish you, forever”.

The twisted apparition exploded, destroying completely the circle and flaying alive almost anyone without heavy protections; even the power armor of the wolves had troubles trying to keep up the pressure, one Wulfen was flayed alive and his blood and flesh, devoured into the blood tornado.

When the blood reached the ground, the was no trace of nor Rune priest Tor, nor Farseer Ayisha and they will never be; or at last not in this universe.

Citadel space/Presidium/2183

 

The mako went through the reality and when it reappeared at the other end of the relay, it simply rammed a pair of geth sentinels that were too close; the already damaged vehicle rolled a pair of times, before slamming itself against a wall; near the burning and damaged presidium gardens.

Shepard groaned inside the vehicle; kicking the side door with enough biotic force to send the door flying in the air and landing in the waters of the presidium, now filled with debris and no few corpses form Seg-C and all kind of diplomats that were a bit to late for the evacuation, when the massive Sovereign appeared and started to destroy all the citadel fleet along a geth flotilla.

Soon the team gets out of the Mako and look around shocked by the state of the presidium and the corpses.

“Damn it” muttered Garrus looking with his blue visor to the corpses in the water “I count fifteen corpses, mostly Seg-C but I see a volus and a pair of asari too”.

Shepard quickly scanned the place, she can not see any enemies nearby, it was a good thing but at the same time it means that Saren has already reached the Citadel chambers and started to upload the control of the Citadel to his fucking master.

“Ok team, we split up, we have a lot of terrain to cover” quickly said Shepard knowing that the situation was as worst as she feared.

“Wrex, Garrus and Tali with me” said Sheppard already putting their thoughts in order; when all of this was over, she will have all the time of the world to ponder how tired and nervous she was in this nightmarish battle; thanks N7 training “ Liara, Kaidan, to the embassies; inform all the fleets out there to come here pronto; we are going to need some serious fire power here, the rest will cleave a path to the Council chambers; rendezvous with us as soon as you can”.

All prepared their weapons and moved to their destinations. Thanks to the embassies to be so close, thankfully Alenko and Liaras mission would not take them too long to finish and join Shepard and the rest of the team in their hunt. All of them had a personal grudge to settle with Saren; and god forgive them, Shepard pretend to all of them to have their pound of flesh of the bastard when they reached him.

Shepard and her team run to the elevator; as she feared the place was crowed with geth sentinels and to make things worst a damn geth transport was launching troops like they were some kind of metal peas from a metal pod. Wrex roared and took down a hunter geth, using his body as cover from the shoots of a pair of walkers and a rocket troopers; Shepard launch one of them into the walls, scraping him good and Garrus get his usual head shoot, when the head of the last rocket troop head disappear and she eared muffled sound of his sniper rifle.

She covered herself in a barrier and run over the cover, joining Wrex in a charge against the walkers, both of them shooting their shotguns continuously as they grinned; enjoying the thrill of the battle, no matter the critical situation on where both of them were knees deep into. Shepard focused and raised the walker with her biotics, eviscerating the geth with a barrage of shoots from her shotgun; she changed the weapon as she has overheated the gun, she took aim and put down another incoming troop from another geth ship.

“Ah, you are like a Krogan Shepard; I knew there was a reason I didn’t shoot you in Vermine” laughed Wrex taking cover; leaving it for a few seconds of intense assault rifle shooting and taking cover back.

“Smooth, Wrex” laughed Sheppard back, cooling her weapon and lifting another geth rocket trooper so Garrus could put him down with another accurate shoot “very smooth”.

“Aha!” shouted the voice of Tali and then suddenly the automatic defenses of the presidium started to shoot in rapid fire, at the incoming geth troop transport vessels taking them out of the sky.

“Nice one Tali, that’s some quick thinking” smiled Shepard to the young Quarian who chuckled and rub her hands together; she did that every time she was nervous or embarrassed.

“Spoilsport” huffed Wrex who was enjoying the action.

“I could see the geth flotilla out there...Spirits, the arms, are closing?!” said Garrus shocked as the arms of the citadel were closing, slowly but steady; creating a thick closure that would make the damn Sovereign unreachable until it open the dark space relay and bring the rest of the Reapers to the party.

“Damn it, we are running out of time” swore Shepard, her omnitool flashed with and incoming transmission of Kaidan and Liara.

They have already finished contacting the Council and the Alliance; they were fighting outside the arms; the geth flotilla is giving them a hard time and the Asari dreadnought; the Ascension of Destiny; was receiving the beating of its life; what it worse, the council was inside as they couldn’t evacuate sooner, when they attack came so suddenly.

“Shit, one after another” muttered Shepard “ we need to open those arms and we need to do it now”.

“We could use the main console of the Council chambers” suggested Garrus still scanning the air for nasty surprises, even with the automatic defenses already doing that job.

“I could patch you in, with the data Virgil gave you Shepard” added Tali “then you could take control of the Citadel and open the arms”.

“Sounds like a sound plan to me” smiled Shepard, happier than ever of having such a good team and friends on her side.

Contrary to the popular belief she had nothing against aliens despite the Elysium fiasco with the batarians; hell, she even liked the Krogan, it was like having a grumpy old uncle nearby; an old uncle with a big shotgun but adorable anyways.

“Kaidan, Liara, meet us at the elevator near the bank, we are going to hit the Council chambers together” said Shepard to the other part of the team; they nodded and moved.

“Ok people let´s make this quick, we are running out of time and we have a galaxy to save” laughed Shepard leading the run to the elevator.

Not to long after they left the place, a sudden screeching sound could be hear under the abandoned mako; a moment of silence and the loud bangs of something hitting metal; the noisy continue for a while until over the surface of the Mako, appeared a series of bumps; one loud screech after and one piece of the armor of the Mako bended, before it was throw into the air by a loud bang, by a gray armored fist that has just punched through the metal and then took another piece of the destroyed armor plaques of the Mako and bent it more, opening more and more cracks in the already wrecked APC.

A loud noise came form inside the APC and after a loud grunt, the meter and half blade of _Redstorm_ pierced the armor and cut a piece; big enough; for his carrier to get out of the damn metal trap. Trampled over, wounded, ragged, confused, angered, thirsty, hungry, sore and in general an extremely pissed off Tor put an armored foot in the halls of the destroyed Presidium; he looked for anything that could give him a clue about where, in Russ name, has he been spitted by the bloody demon that caught him in the space hulk along the eldar Farseer; now that he remembered, the eldar female and how he battled at her side, against a powerful and tainted mutant that he decapitated in the end, before he could summon his daemonic master.

He would love to recover the head of the dammed thing and hang it at the wall of his forge, back in the packs base, but the eldar burn the damn thing to ashes before he could claim his trophy; nor he blame the xenos, it was the correct thing to do; it was a real pity, now he will need the word of Sarek, to be able to add that kill to his saga.

Tor started to notice, how odd all the place look like; there was some kind of xenos bipedal turtle statue in a corner; extremely damage by fire weapons; and a lot of xenos corpses in the water, all their blood smelt wrong, he could not recognize the smells. There was the unmistakable smell of humans but the air; despite the aroma of battlefield, had a quality that he did not recognize. There was something very odd around the place; he expanded his senses way beyond even the Wulfen could reach; he tapped into the inmaterium and he froze in the spot.

It couldn’t be...this was not possible.

The ocean of souls was clear, calm and tranquil; he expanded his mind more into the Warp; he saw souls, glowing in the middle of a war against a damn race of _abominable inteligence!_.

He got back into his own body and his blood ran cold; this was impossible; did he traveled back in time until the days of darkness?, has he been sent when the iron men destroyed humanity?.

No, that was impossible, the Chaos gods existed even before that time and the Warp was devoid of them; there is still some lingering presence of Behemoth like Warp beings among the stars, some primitive predators and some odd presences hiding in the corner of the space; but no great gods, there is Nothing.

Russ bones.

Tor focused into his mind again and launch his consciousness into the Warp but in a way that would be considered directly suicidal in his universe.

And saw it.

Or more correctly, didn’t see it.

The Astronomicom, gone, nothing, the light of the Emperor, the beacon that illuminated the eternal darkness of the Warp didn’t exist in this nightmare like realm.

Tor howled and the pure brute force of his physic howl, sent debris and the scrapped Mako, flying into a twister of brute psy energy; the corpses of the geth floated from the floor, along crystal shards and a few corpses from the water; trapped as well into the echo.

All the Citadel tower rumbled with the anguish of the howl; it didn’t go unnoticed by the few persons in this universe, who could sense things like that.

In another system, a tattooed girl was trying to catch some sleep in a very uncomfortable mattress, somewhere in the middle of a humid jungle; her head crawling with ideas like worms, they hurt and whisper in her head, about destruction and mayhem; the only things that could bring some semblance of peace to her, as ridiculous as it sounds to her soul; but then, the howl came and all the worms disappeared like leaves scattered by a storm. The howl was sad and scary but for the first time in years, the girl actually slept without nightmares or fears with the howl of the wolf, still in her ears like a lullaby.

A righteous asari; compromised by a strict code was traveling through the galaxy, hunting the most dangerous of the preys, hundreds of years of hunting and she knew she was close but it always eluded her grasp like a bad dream. The frustration was starting to make dent, even in a strong will like hers, but then she heard it; it was a sad and hurt yet it was kind of comforting; there was another one like her in the universe, a hunter without a prey. The asari allowed herself a tiny smile.

Another traveler ear the howl, more intensely than the rest and she didn’t feel so alone anymore. It was astonishing how the howl could comfort the traveler; it could be her worst nightmare yet she felt another thing, something completely different, she, at last, wasn’t alone.

Inside the Ascension of Destiny; a very special asari feel a clench on her heart; she hadn’t listened that howl for centuries; it was impossible to such a howl, to be produce in this universe; something has gone very wrong for the presence of one of the possessor of those howls, to end in this universe; but perhaps, it could be a good thing; the universe need a bit of what the wolves could bring and she smiled; shit just has got interesting.

In the barrens of Tuchanka, an old Krogan was feeling all his years fall on him and he didn’t like the sensation, not one bit; a varren along him was resting and whimpering as he could resonate with the old Krogan, old age; all his home world was in ruins and the clans just continue butting heads against each other...the krogan endures but could they endure their own stupidity?.

Then the howl shackled them both, hitting something primal inside them; for the varren means an alpha; a real powerful alpha; someone worthy at last; for the old Krogan on the other hand, it means something much more interesting. The howl has almost rejuvenated him, he didn’t feel such tingle in the spines since he was a young whelp and his krantt killed a thresher maw; his depression went down and he smiled with the howl still ringing in the back of his mind; he would meet the Howler, about that much, he was certain; be it for good or bad, doesn’t matter, the howl brought the sound of change. And change was something that the krogan need desperately.

A lot of other beings reacted to the howl; they identified it like a challenge or a warning, some as a salute, but all them know one single truth.

A new power has arrived to the universe.

Standing in the top of the Citadel tower, the howl didn’t pass unnoticed to the Sovereign, he remembered another similar occasion, on where a harvested race opposed them like the Proteans and a long list before them, but this one, this harvested race could use power like this...to reach minds and souls. He sent a warning to the geth under his command, find and destroy the origin of the howl, he must be brought to him for answer; Sovereign had discovered a new X-factor in his plans. The interference must be eliminated.

Kaidan was about to shot down the crystal of the blocked elevator, when the echoes of the howl hit the crystal and destroy the cabin, dragging all the shards along him but leaving the stunned and astonished people inside the elevator untouched.

“For Petes sake, did you hear that?” said Kaidan through his helmet.

“I think, I have discovered the source; Spirits, please tell me I’m not hallucinating” commented Garrus looking down before all of them imitated him and saw what Garrus saw.

“Keelah, what is that thing?” said Tali “ wait, is that a sword?”.

Kaidan took out his omnitool and tried to link with a camera of the presidium, he finally saw one and linked the image to a real time vid in a hologram in front of the rest of the crew; what all of them saw let them stunned and mouth agape.

A towering giant; taller than the massive form of Wrex; was standing over the landing zone of the Mako, with a meter and half red sword crawling with electricity over his head.

He carried a battered a dark gray armor, full of golden runes and a wolf head shaped helmet that scared the shit out of most of them; despite not knowing what a wolf actually is; on his back there was some kind of power backpack, from where a pair of heavy machinery pincers hang, half broken, among an ax with a strange teeth pattern on the blade and what it looks like a flamethrower, some kind of rifle and a weapon that look like the fusion of a Krogan sized assault rifle and some kind of tube.

All his body; human body, muscular, strong and perfectly shaped human body as Liara, Tali and Shepard took good mental note; or at last the parts that were in plain sight ;as the armor look likes it has been sent to hell back and forth a few times to be sure; were covered in wounds, bruises and gashes.

The wounds were already covered in what looks like dry, thick, black blood and despite the amount of damage the wolf man was showing, there was no real indicator that it bothered him the least, if one had to judge from the howl that has shackled the tower.

“Ok, I will guess, it is human or at last his body looks human; more or less” mussed Shepard as lost as the rest of the team on what the hell was that thing, that could roar and shackle the damn tower “ so if he is Alliance, all better for us, if not; we better hurry and stop Saren before whatever that thing is caught us and slow us more”.

Shepard was the first who exited the wrecked elevator and magnetized her boots, so she could run in zero-g to the top of the Council chamber, the rest of the team, after sharing a few glances to the wolf man at the end of the tower, followed their leader. They had a ton of questions about this new development; was some kind of hunter, Saren has thrown at them?, that would be improbable, they never found something like that in Virmine or along Benezia; it was powerful enough to generate enough force to shake the Citadel tower. But the more important question for them at the moment, was if the new apparition was friend or foe.

And for fucks sake, was that a bloody sword?.

The team magnetized their boots and start climbing the tower, reaching the Council chambers.

However, Garrus warned the team that an incoming barrage of drones were going down the place right at them; the group take cover and prepared for the fight, but they get a little disappointed on how the majority of the drones just keep flying down to engage the wolf man. Shepard shrugged and take down the drones that remained; her team make it short work of the drones; after what Saren has thrown at them, a bunch of drones were kind of insulting but on the other hand; it only means that they could reach their objective sooner and prevent even more bloodshed that the turian had already provoked, bringing the Sovereign into Citadel space.

“More troops incoming” sound Kaidan through the communicators of all the team, as he pointed out to a geth troop vessel that launched a dozen of collapsed geth into the rails of the elevator.

Shepard took out his shotgun and start quick run, throwing a volley of biotic fire against the incoming geth as salute. Soon her team followed, but they have to quickly took cover to evade the missiles of the geth rocket troopers. The bastard took a defensive position near the end of the elevator, a position that would allow them to take down anything that get closer to the doors; what was worse, was that even a side explosion could separate them from the magnetized walls, leaving them like sitting ducks in the Zero-G. Now, Shepard knew how fucked up, the singularity the biotics could create, felts to the rest of the people; hanging in the air completely defenseless was horrible feeling and now she was the one who could sense it.

“Garrus, Kaidan could you eliminate the rockets?” asked Shepard hiding behind a big debris inside the elevator wall, big and sturdy enough to sock off the explosion of the missiles the rocket troopers was firing at them.

“I have one” answered Garrus before the muzzle of his sniper rifle sounded and the head of one of the troops exploded in a mass of geth screech and fried circuitry.

“I got the other one” said Liara before send the trooper flying outside of the cover on where he was, only to be taken down by Tali with a brutal shot of her shotgun.

“Nice people but there is still a lot more” commented Sheppard and launched herself in the middle of a bunch of troopers ripping them apart with biotics and heavy pistol fire.

The team soon joined her but all of them know better, letting the Lioness of Elysium blow off some steam; she could be a good Samaritan but she had a shot fuse when anyone is stupid enough to push all her wrong buttons and when that happens you better run for cover.

This geth are going to learn it in the hard way.

She smashed the chest of one of them with a single punch and throw the carcass to the face of another, before blasting his head with a shoot of her pistol; the bullet exploded inside the light bulb in the middle of his face, detonating like a cascade of sparkles, just right after that she picked up another one and lift the machine, shooting several rounds on its chest before she spun on her talons, dodging the shoots of a geth trooper on her back and kicked the head of the trooper with enough biotic force to bend his neck into a very awkward angle.

To be sure, she picked the head and squished it until it was scrap, still shooting her pistol to another enemy, piercing its chest and covering herself with a blue fire barrier that keep a barrage of fire from a pair of fresh dropped troopers out of her armor. She warped the space between the troopers and shoot them into the scrapyard, using her biotics to pull a trio of troopers, right at her side, and destroy them completely with her bare hands in a burst of biotic violence.

She had killed a dozen geth troopers in eight seconds flat, once again, she has demonstrated why she was the Lioness of Elysium and why anyone should never mess with her.

“Feeling better commander?” asked Garrus joining her, near the end of the trek along the walls of the elevator, they were already close to the Council chambers and the geth were retreating.

“Hell yes, Vakarian” winked the woman to the Sig-C officer that laughed and cooled his sniper rifle.

“This was too easy” said Wrex suddenly reaching the top along the rest “ this were just troopers and some rockets, where are the juggernauts, the hunter, the dammed walkers?” shouted Wrex but before anyone of them could answer a loud explosion sound under them.

All of them look down only to see an orange and black explosion full of lighting near the end of the tube of the elevator.

“I will make a guess and say they were hunting down a wolf man” said Garrus whistling for the explosion, as Seg-C officer he knew what kind of fire power was need to pull such explosion in the middle of the spacious Presidium.

“Show off” grunted Wrex that was showing a bit of interest in the explosion under them, they geth were moving out a lot of forces to take down the wolf man; what was so dangerous about him anyway?.

Kaidan was already over the door hacking through the systems so he could end the blockade of the door and letting them in; despite the good luck they had so far; when the strange wolf appeared and call out the attention of all the geth they would have to fight otherwise; he known better, to never lower the guard; it could be dangerous.

“Ok team, once we are inside we took Saren down and quick, Tali and Kaidan, I want you to pull the data of Virgil into the Citadel main console and open the arms of the citadel, then we blown the fucking Sovereign out of the sky” resumed the commander still under the after effect of the adrenaline of the intense combat she has had just a minute before.

The team nodded ready for anything and when Kaidan opened the door they barged in, weapons ready and biotics flaring; at last they could end the long hunt and claim their prize; all of them had an ax to grind with the Turian and they pretend to get paid in blood.

Tor decapitated a walker with _Redstorm_ and smashed the carcass into the floor with a loud stamp before throw a quartette of lightnings directly at the chest of a geth juggernaut, that stumbled and exploded by the pure overload the electricity made into his body. A barrage of fire hit his back; leaving some nasty wounds on his exposed flesh, the Narraman cells on his blood prevent him to bleed to death but do nothing when a rain of bullets tears your flesh apart.

Stumbling he gazed the incoming threat and smiled under his helmet, taking his bolter and burst his own rain of death off the cannon of the powerful weapon; he noticed with curiosity how before the bullets torn apart the slender bodies of this iron men, there was some kind of blue flash; his helmet was operating on minimum energy so there was no analysis available at the moment; he just keep working the targeting sensors and the zoom of the eyes of the wolf mask.

A pair of energy shots melted the body of the walker on where he was standing, as a pair of new walkers appeared around a corner and charged his mouth/face cannons and fire against him again; three of those crawling metal things appeared too, at the sides of the walker. They moved fast in a zig zag pattern, making more difficult to target them; their crouched forms remained him of a hybrid between a genestealer and a nekron units called Flayed ones and that image made him snarl.

Quicker than the geth could anticipate Tor jumped in a display of psy power, reaching the first of the hunters and impaled it with _Redstorm,_ shooting a burst of his bolter to the other one without even needed to see him, disemboweling the hunter before he could even react; the last one flashed to a nearby column and Tor just broke the base of the column with his mind and send the last hunter and the stone debris against one of the walkers, squishing the lesser geth between the ton stone debris and the shield and armor of the bigger one.

Tor blinked a pair of times, again with the blue flash, but it only happened when the little geth make contact with the bigger one; however before could elaborate a theory a pair of shoots reached him; one failed by the minimum and yet it made his exposed skin boil but the other hit him, right in the chest and send him backwards with parts of his chest plate melting. The worst part was the loose of his right shoulder pad; the armor piece unhooked itself when the pseudo plasma of these things burnt through the exposed hooks of the armor and melted the circuitry inside, leaving a white hot piece of decorate metal buried inside a console of the presidium.

Thank the All-father, the icon of the company was still proudly displayed in the surface of the piece.

A boiling rage burned trough the mind of Tor; a rage that demanded to be unleashed.

As he stood his ground, twenty geth were surrounding him; shooting their lame little guns, almost all the impacts bounced off his armor and the few that landed in the flesh were mostly ignored, the astartes physiology was more than capable of taking care of such minor wounds and he carried the Wulfen, his physical prowess was even better than the rest of the astartes; such was the blessing and the curse of the Canis helix the sacred gift of Leman Russ to his sons.

Still, he was already wounded and soon they will overwhelm him; another plasma shoot like the previous one and his armor will be practically destroyed and his healing capability as astartes compromised too by simply overload. He refused to die here; this place will not be the last battle of the Iron wolf. Tor picked up a grenade from his backpack and ignoring the pain of the thousand stings on his body, focused his powers as psyker.

Once again he moved at an astonishing speed, dodging the first geth who shoot each other, as their tracking systems and movement capability was overwhelmed by the sheer speed of Tor; he smashed his cybernetic left hand and forearm into the chest of a trooper and raise him from the floor using him as improvised shield, ramming into the mass of troopers. The troopers shoot him but they were just rammed and be sent flying, when the ton living battery ram that was Tor, smashed into them; the barrage of fire rebounded on Tors armor of just continued peeling the carcass of the geth trooper on his hand.

He threw the few pieces left of the carcass at the charging face of a walker, melting the fallen geth and disrupting the shoot, meanwhile, he slided under the walker sticking a circular disk on the gut of the walker. As soon as he reached the other side of the geth he got up and jumped with all his might ,in an impressive twenty meters high jump, into the debris of the elevator tunnel and roll behind a solid piece of metal that look like some kind of piece from a statue.

The geth pointed their guns at him but when they were ready to fire again the walker look down and he exploded in a plasma bust that disemboweled him; his pieces were thrown in all directions, like a deadly hyper heated shrapnel that decimated the troopers at its side, provoking a lot of secondary explosions that merged into a big one when the nucleus of the geth explode as well. For a second a hundred meters in the presidium gardens became a ball of fire and plasma, killing all the geth in the place in a second.

Smiling under his mask, Tor took impulse once again and jumped into another ledge on the walls of the elevator; the ships, the cabs and all kind of metallic slabs, debris and destroyed pieces of machinery marred out the place, so, for a people capable of jumping as easy as him; climbing the elevator was a piece of cake. He soon changed opinion, as the atmosphere became hostile and the place into a zero-g environment, as soon as he pass through a shield that prevented the air of the presidium to evaporate in the punctured walls from where the geth troop transport entered into the Citadel.

Tor buried his hand into a wall, hanging out in the wall; hanging like this, he could move and not float aimlessly in the air; propelling himself toward the upper levels; he has seen how the only living beings apart from him, had run to the top; his helmet sensor picked up the image of two humans and bunch of xenos that he has never seen before. No matter if they were heretics, an inquisitor or a bloody Rogue trader they will have answers about where, in Russ name, has he crash landed; if he has to fry their minds so be it; the battle with the tiny puny iron men has been fun but he need information and these humans will give it to him. He punched through a metallic debris in his way, pouring all his anger and frustration into the punch; the metal slab exploded like an overinflated balloon with a thundering sound, that was muffled by the zero-g atmosphere; there was little air left in the zone to create the sound the loud psy blast as the storm that was the distinctive mark of Tor every time he used his psyker powers; along the iron like skin that gave him his name.

He knew he was postponing the inevitable; soon he would have to face the truth that there was no Emperor in this place, the sacred light of the Astronomicon was no more, there was no Eye of Terror, there was almost no presence in the Warp;it was calm and composed; sealed by some technology that he could only attribute to the Necrons but if that was the case, they would have sealed completely the realm of souls and not this calming, infinite ocean.

It was easier to use the psyker power that awakened in him during his time in the Eye of Terror, there was no real demon presence on the inmaterium, there was less need to channel half of his power into the wards on his helmet so the demons couldn’t posses his body or the Warp to be poured inside the demon realm through his head. It was so tempting that Tor just snarled, that was not good, the powers of the Warp are tempting and without the real danger of being possessed, although he couldn’t know if there could be another kind of predators out there, beyond the ones he knew, all the psyker of the universe could use their powers way more freely. That would be a scary thought for a common human but for Tor only means more work and he loved his work, he was born and raise to be a warrior; the best there is in a galaxy at war and forged, in the eternal blizzards of Fenris.

This place will not defeat him, he was Tor Iron wolf and he would challenge whatever this galaxy throw at him with a smile in his lips and _Redstorm_ in his hand.

They will feel fear.

A final push, send him to a gate, covered by an energy shield of some kind, he clawed his fingers into the edge of the door, frankly fascinated for the holographic display in front of the door, despite it being nothing but a simple red square surrounding a circle. It has been eons, since he saw similar doors and only in the most advanced worlds that the 13th company visited during the glorious days of the Great Crusade; the secrets of that technology was supposed to be completely lost, only some mechanicus, back in mars, had something similar but this look like some kind of commodity, something that one would find anywhere.

Tor send a mental command to his gauntlet and a plug exited from a compartment in the back of the arm, he had his doubt that he could find a compatible connection but perhaps...magnetizing his boots he stood on the wall and clawed more the sides of the door, if he couldn’t access to whatever programming kept the door close he would tear apart the cables surrounding it.

After some clawing and bending of the protective capes that surrounded the mechanism, Tor finally saw his price; a lot of wires from different colors, under a tiny cape of some kind of plastic metal. In another circumstances he would love to investigate further such technology, he was an iron priest at the beginning and this was perhaps the rediscovery of lost tech for the Empire, but now he was in rush so he simply recurred to the ork style of solving problems. He raised _Redstorm_ and cut all the wires in one single strike, pouring some electric psy power into the sword, to further disrupt, whatever electronics were at work at the wires.

It worked like a charm, dispersing the shield after it blinked and shimmered a couple of times before the door lost the holographic symbol in front of it and just became a simple big metal door and fortunately Tor had a very long and strong tool that do wonders with this kind of doors.

At the other side of the door, a geth trooper was running into the chambers of the Council, as the Old machine had ordered them to kill the interference designation Shepard and interference designation Howler. But a sudden clang in the other side of the doors at his left called his attention, he moved to the door to further investigate it, he pass the hand over the console at the side of the door and soon noticed the red icon of damage in the shield and systems of the door.

The Keepers of the Citadel were already rummaging through the Citadel, trying to keep up with the thousand damages, the battle with Sovereign and the outside fleets were inflicting over the Citadel, with every stray shoot of his batteries.

The trooper consciences reached a consensus to reactivate the shield, before any more intruders could take advantage of it and bring reinforcements to the place where Designation Spectre Saren was uploading the control of the Citadel to the Old machine. He raised his hand and a wide crimson blade pass through the feet thick armor of the door and split his head light bulb in half, along with the rest of his head, the sword keep cutting the geth and the door until it retracted leaving two smoking halves of a geth trooper in the floor, the right foot twitching, spasmodically.

A pair of hands grabbed the open cut in the door and pull through the doors, opening them by pure brute force. Attracted by the sudden commotion and the screeching of the force sword of Tor slowly cleaving the metallic body of a trooper, a patrol of geth appeared through the corner and saw the ragged form of the Interference designation Howler; appearing trough the door as in the hall sounded several alarms and red lights, when the air started to leek trough the forced door. Raising their guns, they open fire and covered Tor in a rain of bullets that make Tor snarl, as some shots reopened some wounds over his exposed flesh; he felt one of the bullets rebound against one of his ribs, but none of them strong enough to pierce his reinforced bones. Extending one hand to the geth, Tor used the pain and turned it into a barrage of lighting that leap from geth to geth, frying their systems and bursting their mechanical bodies with an overload of energy into their feeble metallic forms.

Tor was starting to ponder if this iron men were really such a threat, he could be an astartes but for what he saw when the humans and their xeno pet fought other iron men, they weren’t the implacable machinery of destruction they were supposed to be. Even a good old lasgun will make short work of this little iron men for what he could observe about their endurance and hardness, he didn’t know what kind of metallic composition this iron men were actually made of but it wasn’t even a shadow of the supposedly invulnerable skin of legends, as the sacred text of Mars told.

He stepped into the hall, paying little attention to the alarms and noticed the console at his side, a real operative console, open for anyone to use, an open and unguarded terminal in the middle of what looks like and important localization. Russ bones, this galaxy will be a vacation to conquer, if the Crusade had found it before the Great betrayal, and the loot will be just as good as easy; they seriously need to be put under so much needed Imperial control. _Abominable intelligences_ running wild like this, Tor doesn’t know what kind of Magos and Tech priest this people have, but they were an incompetent bunch who only deserve to became a waste disposal servitor.

He loomed over the terminal and fell his jaw hung open, when they terminal just reacted to his hand like it was a simple touch screen, but the worst was that he couldn’t understand a word about what´s write in the screen, it wasn’t low Gothic, not high Gothic either, not any of the thousand jargon he had learned thanks to the Omophagea organ during all his battles with heretics, xenos and traitors. With a few trials and errors; the machine recognized the desire of Tor to shut the alarm and seal again the door, he swore that he had glanced for a second, how an arachnid like xenos was repairing the cut wires on the other side of the door.

Shaking his head he run trough the halls, noticing how the place was fill with corpses, he could smell the blood on the place and the smell of burned, melted and charred circuitry. There was a ton of new smells, the turtle xenos corpses, like the one who had a statue and accompanied the human; emitted this characteristic smell of chemical blood, it smelled somehow like the acidic smell of Biles false astartes, in the sense that both were much more powerful that common human blood.

He must admit that however did this was a good damn soldier, and a powerful psyker too, if the burns and corpses squished and smashed around the walls were an indicator of the presence of one, but if it was the case, he would have sense the power, when those manipulations of the Warp took place, specially so close. When he searched the tower, he didn’t see the bright presence of those capable of manipulating the Realm of souls, there was only a residual tingle in a lot of souls but it wasn’t really the sensation he had every time he cross paths with a real psyker.

So, if these hadn’t being made by psy powers, what kind of weaponry was capable of do things like this?, he truly hoped it didn’t resemble the crazy and demented ork technology, that only work when an ork had his green hands on it; as good preys the orks were, Tor fell the Omnissiah cry by the violation of the machine spirits, of every piece of tech that feel on the hands of the greenskins.

Suddenly, all the hall crumbled and rumbled and the thunderous noise of a collapsing structure came to his ears, quickening the pace, Tor put some extra power into his legs, starting a dashing run that allowed him to cover the distance to the place of the collapse.

He froze when he arrived to the place as the scene make no sense to him.

When he arrived to the place, he almost rushed over a female wounded blue xenos, that was being attended by a mouth agape black haired human, who was spreading some kind of balsam over her wounds. They were standing along a female xeno, completely covered by some kind of sealed suit, who was shooting a shotgun into the collapsed room under them, his helmet targeted all of them calculating that only one bolter bullet for each one, would be sufficient to eradicate them.

He picked his bolter, but not to kill them, but because a Necron abomination was trying to kill the other human and her xeno companions, a bird xeno of some kind and one of those turtles he had already seen killed, all around the place.

Tor took aim in a single motion and put a bullet into the red glowing chest of the thing.

It was fast, so much was true, but against the speed and inhumane reflexes of a space marine; it was nothing, he has fought demons much faster than this abomination.

The impact throw him to the floor, smoke exiting from his its chest and with an arm and part of the shoulder ripped apart from his mechanical body.

Tor took the chance to jump down the room, landing near the red haired female and the bird alien, passing at their side and raising _Redstorm_ and his chainax in challenge; after mag locking the bolter back under his servo-harness, he only had five bullets left on the clip.

For a moment everyone on the room just froze in the place, even the Saren-Sovereign hybrid as he took measure of the new threat.

Shepard was staring at the monster that had just appeared in the middle of the room, she has seen it before, but it was an image and the real thing was completely different, for starters, the image didn’t show anything about him being fucking ten feet tall and wider than a krogan warlord on steroids. Neither the scaring wolf helmet that covered his features or the electric buzzing that his crimson and a meter and half broadsword emitted, as if the sword was alive and hungry or the massive gun of two barrels that sounds like the cannon of a Mako and has ripped apart the metal of Sarens body like it was wet paper. And of course, it didn’t tell anything about the electricity that ran over his body, like a living cloak of energy, as he just roared with enough force to all of them wince and cover his ears; challenging the Saren hybrid.

“What the hell is going on here?” shouted Shepard, still not believing what was happening in front of her, what the hell was this monster?, an alliance super soldier delivered now by Hackket?, no it wasn’t that, he had a sword and the bastard son of a chainsaw and the ax of Paul Bonian on his hands and what was that roar about?, It almost busted her ears damn it!.

Saren-Sovereign roared back and jump from his position on the wall, into a better position, to throw another of his energy beams, but when he tried to pull that move, the giant wolf man move faster and swung his sword in a wide ascending arc, that almost beheaded him. The Hybrid crawled at amazing speed over the walls, trying to put some distance between him and the giant that was after him; every time he tried to put distance between them, he moved as fast as him and attack him with the sword, the sensors on the body had already determined that the sword was capable of cutting his metallic body, as it produced some kind of entropic effect over the blade, disrupting his physical cohesion and destroying him. The Hybrid altered the emitter of the disruptor beam on his face, to a less powered one but capable of quick firing instead, he jumped to an elevated position and fired a burst of charged beams.

In an impressive demonstration of agility and swordsmanship, Tor dodged the burst and blocked some rays with his crimson blade, jumping and reaching the hybrid, between shots, and chopping him down with a powerful descending strike of the chainax. The teeth of the ax bite hungrily on the metallic torso of Saren-Sovereign, sparks flew from the place on where the teeth tried to pierce the abominations metallic flesh, but only managed to leave a deep and nasty gash on the surface of the metal.

Still, the impact; empowered by Tor cybernetics, was more than enough to stamp the hybrid into the floor; was something that Shepard took advantage, to wrap the Hybrids body in biotic energy and shoot at point blank range her shotgu, locked in automatic fire.

Half of the skull of the tech reanimated corpse disappeared as the hyper kinetic bullets pounded relentlessly his body. When the biotic field vanish, the body went flying to the other side of the wall, but much to the amazement of everyone, the abomination was still moving and charging another round of his blasted beam, this time, although, Garrus managed to make a one million shoot into the red nucleus of the body, shackling him into a spiraling fall that disrupt the shoot.

“Nice shooting!” smiled widely Shepard to the turian who cooled his weapon and smirked.

But the happiness didn’t last for too long as the abomination rose again, trembling, and with sparks falling and sparking all his insides; the red glow look cracked and dying but what shocked them was when a loud and resonating voice surged from within the deeps of the powered husk.

“ **You...achieve...nothing...I...am...eternal...I will...bring you....Ascension”**

The next words lost forever when Tor took the abomination by the neck and smashed the other half of his head against the floor, with enough force to create cracks in the ultra dense material of the hall of the Council chambers. Still, the feat of strength was nothing compared with what Tor did next.

Tossing the already battered body like a rag doll, he put his ax on his back, took out his bolter and changing the gun to melta, shoot the hyper heat beam, at point black, in the face of the Saren-Sovereign husk.

The flash of hyper heated fusion beam, vaporized seventy percent of the husk along seven meters of Council chambers floor in a wake of melted stone, metal and plastic that could supposedly stand against a heavy weaponry without a dent. The smoke rose when the beam disintegrate, the rest of the body of Sarens husk fall to the ground, leaving nothing on his wake except a seven meters deep hole of burnt floor.

Except the sound of the cooling materials and the muffled sounds of battle beyond the big glass background of the citadel Council room there was no sound as all of them tried to wrap their heads about what has just happened here.

Tor maglocked the bolter back under his damaged servo-harness and howled in victory raising _Redstorm,_ the force weapon sparked in happiness, resonating with his holder victory over the Necron xeno blasphemy.

Shepard blinked a few times, she has seen, yet she still doesn’t believe what just has seen; what is this thing, for fuck sake?.

“Who the hell are you?” shouted Shepard walking to the towering giant, more than tired of all the impossible stunts this thing has done in the few minutes it has been around.

The towering giant turn to her and she suddenly realized, that this monster was as fast as Saren husk and has a sword that could cut through solid metal like it is nothing, enough force to crackle titanium, a gun that overloaded Saren husk shields in one go, not mention a sci fi beam cannon that could vaporize military class vessels armor like the Council chamber had all around his surface.

In retrospective, perhaps an angry tone was not the better of the ideas to approach this wolf man

Still, she blinked when the giant put his sword on his hip; and the sword just glued itself to his damaged armor like it was mag locked and spoke to her in a strong, grave and resonating voice that make her spine tingle, but she couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying.

“Err, sorry I couldn’t understand you” said Shepard.

The wolf man sighed in a very human gesture that made Shepard chuckle.

She took good notice of the status of his body, in the parts of the armor that were broken, all his muscles are directly inhuman and all the wounds on him, already have a crust of dry black blood, that no medigel could produce; it could only mean that the wolf man, has regenerated himself in the few minutes since they have seen him in the base of the Presidium. The wolf man raise one of his armored hands; the right hand; and said something moving very slowly his hand to her head but he suddenly stopped and in a blink, had his planet size gun on the left metallic hand, pointing at something behind her and saying something in a language she couldn’t understand but the tone would have frozen and eezo reactor in the middle of an overload.

She turned and saw all of her team guns ready and pointing at the wolf man in front of her; she knew they were more than capable of open fire and none of them actually hit her, but she was trying to communicate with the wolf man, not provoking him into a fight that could very well end with all of them death.

“Lower your weapons, all of you!” ordered her with her best commanding voice “ didn’t you see him in action? Did you see what this wolf man is capable of?; for fucks, sake don’t provoke him, let me try to talk with him or her or whatever it is”.

“It´s a male; it smells like human but old like the Krogan and carries the smell of a predator” said Wrex who wasn’t very sure about what to think about the wolf masked human thing.

“Huh?” blinked Shepard shocked for the news, she had no reasons not to trust Wrex senses, they were quite good actually but this was a little shocking.

“Ok, go ahead wolfy” said Shepard and turn to the wolf who had his gun still prepared.

He barked...well, it was like Wrex when he tried to chuckle and Shepard could tell that the wolf man has understood her tone, not her words but her tone and it has sense of humor; that’s always a good thing, unless it´s a Krogan type sense of humor. He put his free hand over her head and she felt a wind run through her mind like the storms that she saw in all the planets she had visited along her parents in the fleet, there was the sound of the snow falling and a thunder in the far distance...she felt like a little girl again but not in bad way.

“ _I am Tor Iron wolf, Rune priest of the 13_ _th_ _company of the Sixth legion of Astartes of the Imperium of Mankind”_ every word was like a thunder in her mind but it didn’t deafen her, it was simply raw power but it never caused her any harm.

“ _I am Commander Jane Lionel Shepard of the Systems Alliance”_ answered her in her mind finding all this mind to mind experience kind of fascinating. The “Embrace the Eternity” thing of the asari could be similar to this?.

“ _What is the...”_ the voice tried to say but then suddenly the conversation ended, as a thunderous crash echoed trough the room and a massive piece of the destroyed Sovereign was destroying the Council chambers on his fall, falling in a way that was about to fall over all them, crushing them under its weight.

“Take cover!” shouted Shepard running for her team but the chamber collapsed and the piece of Sovereign fell like a meteorite inside the chamber, smashing all in his path like the wrath of god incarnate.

Shepard could only feel a sudden pressure and deafening thunder all over her before all the structure collapse on top of her.

Captain Anderson hurried the rescue team; perhaps he could find Shepards team in the middle of this mess; they have lost enough time trying to reach the Council chambers.

The geth may have been on retreat after they vanquished the Sovereign; that tough motherfucker soaked a ton of damage from all the Fifth Alliance fleet and still keep fighting, until they managed to overload his shield and blast the thing out of the sky.

But Anderson see the blasted thing ram into the top of the tower; the place were Shepard and her team was releasing the Citadel arms and saving the damn universe and the Council.

Anderson felt deep inside, that perhaps he should have not made the same decision as Shepard, he would sacrifice the Council so all the fleet could focus on the Sovereign, but the lost of the Council would have thrown all the galactic systems at disarray. He was not a human supremacist, but deep inside him, there was a deep part of him that was convinced that the only race that was actually doing anything in the universe, was the human race; the rest of the galactic race look like they were stagnant in their actual states and doesn’t want anything to do with any new ideas.

“Quick soldiers, we need to reach the top” cheered Anderson as he too took a heat torch and cut through debris and scrapped metals, opening a path so the rescue teams could get a pass into the halls of the chamber.

“Anderson, Sir?” a weak voice answered the man from some place under the rubble and Anderson redoubled his efforts.

“I am here soldier, who is there?” replied Anderson “ quickly bring the medics in!” called the rescue team.

“Staff lieutenant Alenko here, sir” answered the voice “I have wounded here”.

“Hang on Kaidan, were on our way” said Anderson bringing in the medics and helping to clear a heavy piece of metal that was surprisingly cold to the touch, despite being near a fusion torch for minutes.

When they cleared enough space; they found a very bruised and battered Alenko, with a deep wound on his belly, along a bruised doctor T´soni; not far from them, Tali was unconscious and Garrus and Wrex were half buried under the debris and rubble from the fall of the Sovereign. Anderson took a pack of medigel and run to Kaidans side, as the medics entered into the place, rushing to the team sides and start checking their status; as soon as the medigel entered in their systems, all of them groaned and recovered consciousness in various degrees of pain.

“Bloody piece of scrap, that was cheating” muttered Wrex who dismissed the help, as his Krogan regeneration had kicked in and start to heal his wounds.

“Keelah...” was all Tali could say as she had no suit punctures but she was bruised enough to pass from another species; if she could be out of her environment suit that is.

“Did you see what I saw?” asked Garrus, who was barely standing but his eyes were moving like a hawk, searching for the only people left in the group yet there was an astonished expression in his turian face.

“Yes we saw it too” nodded Kaidan pointing the unconscious Liara at his side “ but I am still don’t believing it”

“Shepard?” asked the Turian after not finding what he was looking “ has anyone see, Shepard?”

“Last time before this decided to bury itself in my kidneys” said Kaidan pointing with his chin to the metal bar on his stomach “ she was with the wolf man under the arm of the Sovereign, as that thing was pushing the fucking piece of metal with enough force to stop it in mid air....” resumed Kaidan.

“Wolf man?” question Anderson, there was no wolf man on the crew of the Normandy, did they pick up another teammate in Ilos or something like that?, and what was that about pushing the arm of the Sovereign?.

“Doesn’t matter now we need to find Shepard” said Garrus with a lot more emotion that he usually let go on his voice; sarcasm and smart ass remarks apart.

The sudden screech of a metal plate in the border of the crashing site, call the attention of all of them, who took their weapons out ;just in case; but when a piece of metal fly through the air in blue biotic flare and a very pissed off, bruised and stunned commander Jane Shepard enter staggering in their view, all of them relaxed. Despite being wounded, Garrus moved to pick up the Commander and help her to reach the medics, for a very needed dose of Medigel, he took the free arm of Shepard and carry her to the medics along Liara, Kaidan and Tali.

“You scared us for a moment there Commander” mocked Garrus with relief in his voice “we thought, we had lost you”.

“Thank Iron wolf for that” whispered Shepard limping into the medic stretcher, she was severely wounded but if it wasn’t for what Iron wolf did, she would be a smearing mark under a ton of scrap metal.

“Who?” the mandibles of Garrus twitched in the gesture that in humans would be a blink of confusion.

“Iron wolf, the wolf man” explained Shepard “ I don’t know how on earth was he capable of pull such stunt, but he kept the pieces of Sovereign on the air, for enough time to us to take cover and then he saved my ass, by throwing me into a safe place before the sky fall over our heads”.

“Spirits, what was that thing?” said Garrus taking sit along Shepard and Kaidan.

“Tor Iron wolf, Rune priest of the 13th company of the Sixth legion of astartes of the Imperium of Mankind” shrugged Shepard who was tired enough, to don’t care a shit of how crazy all of that sound; she need a shower, a good meal and a bed, in whatever order she could manage.

“I didn’t understand, half of what you had said” shook his head Garrus “ it is a human thing?”.

“Who is this Iron wolf Commander?, a recruit for Ilos or something?” interrupted Anderson, he was more than happy to see the team alive but they look like they were hallucinating.

“This piece of work” coughed Alenko before taking out his omnitool and put a holo of the ragged yet impressive appearance of the Iron wolf.

“That’s the Howling wolf?!” gasped Anderson and the part of the team that was conscious, stared at him, waiting for an explanation.

“When the tower of the Citadel shackled from an unknown sonic attack, all cameras of the survivors of the Seg-C along the VI Avina took a vid from him” pointed Anderson to the image of Iron wolf “ butchering all geth he found in the presidium; more than a hundred by the last recount; before he disappeared in the elevator tube, climbing it with his bare hands”.

“Not really surprised” smiled warily Shepard “ we saw what he could do but now” she turned a sad look to the debris around “he is buried under tons of Sovereign corpse”.

The rest of the team had opposed emotions about this notice; some pity that such a warrior was lost and thanked him for saving them but on the other hand, part of them; except Wrex who would have been more than happy to fight with this towering wolf man; were relieved that such a beast was no more. Between his weaponry, biotic like powers and raw strength he could be one of the worst menaces of the universe, and the Reapers they had more than enough tank you.


	2. Wulfen effect 2

 

 

Fortuna system/Amaranthine space/2183

 

Tor had better awakenings, that’s for sure; he had worst of course, like the one that awakened knee deep in a nyds attack or when he awoke as a sacrifice to a Slannesh cult after his oolitic kidney filtered a potent enough poison to rend him unconscious for several hours; but this hangover like sensation means only that his system has being busy trying to get rid of a nasty chemical on his blood.

He open his eyes and the helmet switched on too, passing his information through his automatic senses about where he was. It was a storage container of some sorts; square and without light, thanks the helmet for the low light vision, despite supposedly being in complete darkness his helm lenses provided a crimson glow that will scare the shit out of anyone who enter inside the container.

Tor quickly scanned the place, he felt his wounds close and the pain almost gone; they have tended his wounds and that was a good thing, but on the other hand, he was chained like an animal to one wall of the container, with some kind of cuffs over his wrist, ankles and neck. He could tell they were some kind of restraints, perhaps to induce pain into a subject or something similar, looks like the armor around here were not specially resistant to energy; and it was just surprising that they didn’t strip of his armor and just cuffed him head to toe in these chains.

His ears picked up the humming of a motor outside the container, it wasn’t like anything he had eared before, it was a gentle hum, totally different from the roar of the bikes of the 13th company or the other vehicles they had before the Great Hunt in the Eye of Terror; no tank of the company, no landspeeder or jet bike was capable of be so silent yet move a crate of enough size to contain him, full armored and still be more than enough space for couple of persons to move around freely.

They had put a lock on the surface of his servo-harness. Effectively blocking all his arms but they have tried to dismount the flamethrower and the plasma cutter, with very little success, far beyond broken then more than they were already were.This infuriated Tor, what kind of sloppy Magos are in this universe?, how they allow such a mistreatment to the spirit machines?, they had tried to cut the damn arm!, this was outrageous, no matter if they were not part of the Mechanicus, no Magos with an ounce of common sense, would do something like this; although, it was evident that he was among possible hostiles for whoever has chained and restrained him.

Better be safe than sorry, despite being an astartes, he was far from optimal combat status. He was wounded and weakened after the combat with the blasted mutant; being toss through the warp and puked into this dammed universe, the red status of all the armor systems, his servo-harness practically broken by incompetent hands and the damaged he has taken to save the female human called Jane Lionel Shepard. He had touched her mind and found no taint, in fact, only the most strong willed and determined Imperial inquisitors had such a strong and pure mind.

The Necron ship, crash just over their heads, he burnt half the systems of his runic protection circuitry just to keep the thing in the air, for enough time to toss her into a blank spot, that would receive lesser damage; he wouldn’t have been to pull such a power output on the previous galaxy without opening his mind to the possession but thanks to the deserted and sealed warp of this universe, he could pour a shit ton more power into his psy powers. And talking about that, Tor shut down the helmet senses and closed his eyes, entering into his mind and expanding the senses that all psykers had, soon his spirit left his body and travel outside the container into a longer cargo bay.

It was cleaner than any cargo bay he has seen before in the Imperium, the metal was lean and plastic in his appearance, nothing like the adamantium and armaplas or plasteel, that were the basic of practically all hulls in the Empire. There was a simple designed land speeder of some sorts near his crate, with a white, gold and black pattern color over his surface; Tor didn’t recognize the symbol on the side of the speeder, but he has to admit it looks gravitational, armored and capable of transporting troops into the battlefield,

Tor technological curiosity wanted to dissect and investigate the ship but he was only seeing through the Warp and by so, he couldn’t interact with anything solid, not without provoking a breach in the reality and pour pure Warp energy into the material world, resulting in a very explosive and devastating reaction and possibly, his soul teared away forever, burned by the same energies he wielded. He listened to the minds inside the ship; a very little ship now that he counts the minds on it; there was a dozen minds and the ship was no greater than a hundred meters; a Thunderhawk was way bigger than this and only needed three pilots.

The first mind he entered was very busy calculating how much they are going to win when they deliver Tor or the Howling wolf as they called him, to his boss in Cerberus, only the tech he carried worth millions, never, had anyone of them, saw nothing like that. Cerberus, under what adeptus was that?, perhaps some kind of inquisitor code name for a cell of servants inside this blasted galaxy?; no, there was no inquisition reference of any kind inside the mind of this greedy man, He retired before he could notice the psy intrusion on his mind, moving to the next mind as he found a bitter soldier who was performing the maintenance of his weapon; not a lasgun but a solid slug gun of some sorts, highly inefficient against anything with armor that’s for sure; along thoughts of greed, lusts and how he was going to spend all the money obtained with this jackpot, into all the Asari dancers he could found and fuck.

Tor fell his blood run cold at the implications of this thought.

For a second he just hoped that the man was referring to some kind of whorehouse or pleasure circle, like the ones they are in the most populated areas of Hive worlds or referring to a pimp and his girls, that always followed the Regiments of the Imperial guard as a stress release; but no, his fears become real, when he deepened his mind read, don’t caring a damn about being caught; he found what he feared. The Asari are the blue xenos females; all females?; race that was fighting at the side of Shepard against the Necron abomination.

This man copulate with xenos as a usual activity and despite his obvious, dark and impure mind there was nothing on that thought that suggested it was a taboo for the rest of the universe, Tor caused the man astonishingly high pain almost killing him but stopped before he actually killed him, Taking the chance now that the man was unconscious and alone; Tor devoured his memories, learning all what he could and leaving nothing than an empty, drooling, husk in the process. He was found guilty of crimes against the Imperium and he would have been condemned to _Servitude imperpituis;_ to became a servitor; when Tor get out of the box and put his hands on the bastard xeno lover.

His memories hit him like a train, it couldn’t be...

As Iron priest, the implants Tor had ;as graduation for the rank of Magos in Mars; were memory buffers, made by his own; the first needed implant to be able to wield the servo-harness with efficiency; and by so, he had eidetic memory and almost infinite memory space, if he compressed and cleared the files from time to time. He took the memories of the man by force and cleaned it from any personal attachment; a work that took him a lot of time but he had all the time of the world; even if they discovered the man, all the people will think that he only suffered and nasty brain embolism, odd but there was nothing that could relate his state with him, chained on the container, at the other side of the vessel.

Once he cleaned the memories and pass to his own brain memory circuitry, he revised the memories and almost collapse on the spot.

The year was 2183, M3, the cradle of humanity; even before the dark age of technology and the age of strife, the humanity was discovering the space and they collide with the Turian in the first contact war...

War?, that was a skirmish at best and that being generous.

They fight for three months and in groups of hundreds in the best cases, a regiment of the Imperial guard or an astartes company of even those cowards of Caliban, would have swept the floor with the so called Turian military power. This galaxy is seriously unprepared for a real war, on where the casualties could be count by billions at the end of day; and their navy?, please the ship size almost make Tor laugh; the bigger ship was a Xenos dreadnought of two kilometers size, more or less what would be considered a frigate on the Empire and that being generous; not to mention their naval weapons are mostly energy weapons that has not the real kick of a Voidsunder lance, not even a shadow of it.

Tor was so engrossed in the memories that he didn’t notice, how other member of the crew has found the corpse and took him to the infirmary of the ship.

Searching trough the memories of the catatonic husk of a man, Tor didn’t care about the mans destiny, he was much more interested in a thing that had discovered when he was cataloging the military units this man knows about; both human and xenos; and on a side note he found the existence of the extranet and the VI.

The VI were sophisticated programs that helps their owners, using technological systems by monitoring and easing the data storage, filtration and the information on them; they are not real AI but clever programs so to speak, they are widely used by almost all races of the universe; they are very and suspiciously, similar to the Spirit machine of his own runic armors spirit machine. Still, he could see the advantages of the VI, processing the data on the cogitors...err terminals or consoles as this people call the data posts; something that this people put on every corner. All the information on the universe is easy to access for anyone with a bit of curiosity, how the fuck did they deal with the heretics then?...oh, they don’t have heretics but they do have psykers, no they are biotics, and it is the manipulation of zero elements inside the blood of the user that allows them to did such effects.

It was kind of limited, for what Tor could see; much better controlled and regulated than the raw power of a psyker, but still, useful to send enemies flying and destroy them by simple pure will force; considering the Warp is almost unknown to this people, it was not a surprise they developed this kind of resources. Tor shook his head, this universe was nuts, its crazy, it is nowhere ready for a war but at the same time this place had one thing that his own had lost long ago. They have hope; the End of times is forty thousands years in the future; this universe is young, full of hope and possibilities; the Emperor has not even born until twenty thousand years in the future perhaps, and the humanity is still searching for his place in the stars.

There is no manipulative eldars or dumb psycho crazed dark eldars, no ork waaaaghs, no nyds swarm devouring the universe, no necron iron men doing the same, no puny Tau trying to sell you his dream retard golden empire of supreme good and what was best of it?.

There is NO chaos gods determined to turn the universe into his own twisted nightmare vision of how reality should be.

There.Is.No.Demons.

Well, there could be something hiding in the warp, but it could be one of those things that were before even the Chaos gods, primitive hunters that prey on raw emotions and couldn’t enter the real world without a psyker to manifest them without going crazy.

No Eye of terror, no astartes traitors, nothing...

And he was alone.

This simply thought make the blood of Tor run cold in his veins; he had just realized that there was no longer at the Imperium; so there was no longer Sixth legion of astartes; all his brothers, Russ and the Allfather were no more.

So...

What was his place know?.

Tor felt a boiling rage erupt inside his chest; a crimson mist filled his brain, as the beast inside his body started to rattle, it was the rage of his spirit wolf; the Wulfen, that was the greatest gift and curse of Russ to his sons and brothers along the geneseed that makes them astartes. Tor had the mark of the Wulfen; half his company carried it in a way or another, being the werewolf monsters called the Wulfen squads, the ones that had it worst and the curse finally took over his body and minds. In Tor case, thanks to a mix of his own psy powers and force of will, he managed to get a hold of the curse; channeling it into constructive rage in the battle and extra source of strength to control and channel his psy powers in the battlefield. It lead to some minor secondary effects, like his actual appearance under the helmet but it was nothing to worry about.

However, the revelation of being alone has sent his spirit at disarray and the Wulfen reacted the only way he knows; with extreme violence and blood thirst.The anger fueled his strength and with a powerful drag, he broke the chains on his arms and torso; however, the lock like cuffs on his limbs started to whistle and channeled ungodly amounts of electricity all over his body.

The armor took the brunt of the shock, but still, a loot of electricity run rampant all over his body causing a lot of pain; an action that only enraged even more the Wulfen and with a snarl pour a shit ton of bio electricity back into the restraints; overloading them and making them explode in a rain of sparks and smoke. There was no strategy, nor tactic in his actions, he was blind by fury and he only wanted blood, the wolf demanded to be free of the chains and the imprisonment.

He had only been at this state when he suffered the Wulfen curse, the first when he was just a recently created Astartes back in the frozen lands and mountains of his home planet Fenris, when the Wulfen make him hunt and kill anything in his path, demanding the fresh blood of a worthy prey to kill.

But this time wasn’t like that; the trauma of being completely alone and separated from the brothers he has been fighting along for thousands of years has put his Wulfen in a blind rage and he demanded the blood of the guilty. He smashed the door of the container, making him exploded for inside out in a single punch, exiting the crate and entering the big cargo hold he has sensed before; an alarm resonated in the air as his scape has alert all the eleven persons aboard that he was free.

A side door opened and trio of persons in black colored light armor and armed with assault rifles entered into the crate, quickly opening fire at him. The bullets rebounded on his armor but the few that manages to pierce his flesh, had the effect of torch his exposed skin and tried to inject something in his system, his blood was already hands full creating a crust over the wounds and his oolitic kidneys were working extra at the discovery that their bullets were radioactive in some way.

He took the punishment and run to his attackers, who stand in disbelief about how something so big could move so fast; the first one Tor put his hands on, had his head rip of his body in a rain of blood and with the ripped head, he smashed the helmet and the face of the second one; sending him to the ground seeing starts. He grab the last trooper by the neck and the left leg, pull her over his head and snapped the girl in half by pure brute force despite the pained screams of the girl.

The last thing the last survivor saw was the soil of the boot of Tor when he stomped his head and splatter all his brain all over the cargo hold floor among his destroyed helmet.

Tor howled in rage and the sound traveled trough all the ship reaching every corner of the place and sending a clear advise to the rest of the ship.

The wolf wants your blood, you all going to die, violently.

On the cabin of the ship, a very terrified pilot was sending an s.o.s to the Cerberus command, informing about the break out of the Howling wolf and transmitting the last coordinates, fortunately for them they were already out of Mass effect hyper jump and already on Horse Head nebula, Fortuna system; in route to the Minute man station.

The VI of the ships inform the pilot of the death of all troopers on board, in the first two minutes since the alarm sounded and the terrified man could only see how the ten feet armored monster, tore apart the soldiers with his fucking bare hands, like they were nothing, like the toys of an enraged child. Shutting down the alarms, as they are only getting on his nerves, the man activated the automatic defenses of the ship, he doubted the pair of automatic turrets along the main corridor of the frigate would stop the monster but it would slow him down enough to the man to pull out his desperate gambit.

There was only four people alive in the ship; the medic of the ship and a pair of technician of the cargo hold who keep the Kodiak ready for deployment and him; those four were the last living signatures on board; leaving apart that wolf helmet thing that has butchered the rest of the crew like they were cattle. The pilot started to open all hatchs, creating a sudden void in the ship and killing all living things on the inside; to the hell with the rest of the crew, he will survive this shit and deliver a fucking corpse if its needed to the Minute station. The VI advised about his actions but the pilot has control of the ships systems, so he simply muted the red glowing digital girl and proceed with the operation, not before putting his suit up and seal the cabin so the desperate action didn’t affect him.

He made deaf hears when the insults and pleas of the rest of the crew sounded in the communication network, before he pushed the last button of the holographic controls and kill all the other presents inside the Cerberus frigate. After that he would have only to send some maintenance drones to pick up the corpse and he will get a pretty hefty paycheck that would do wonders with his life style; perhaps he could even retire and buy a good piece of terrain in a luxury colony near earth or buy himself one of those luxury suits on Ilyium along a dozen of asari maids to complement.

The bangs on the cabin doors make his heart stop; the loud bangs just continued relentlessly and the pilot check the cameras on the ship...

The corpses were floating around but the wolf was just standing in front of the doors, punching the doors with enough force to make dents in the military class hard metal, at this rhythm he will just rip the doors, despite the sealing and the hardness of the metal; supposedly you will need a fusion torch to cut through these doors and this thing was just punching through it. The pilot ordered the self destruction of the ship and put collision course to the nearest planet; the skies of Amaranthine saluted the falling ship in collision course against his surface; before the doors of the cabin burst open at the continuous and furious punches and claws of the wolfman.

The pilot turned the chair of the pilot to face the wolf and taking his pistol from his holster put it against his head and pull the trigger after spitting in the wolf direction and say.

“Fuck you, monster”.

Tor howled inside the crashing ship when the Eezo reactor overloaded and destroyed half the back of the ship in a blue and orange explosion; sending the ship in a spiraling pattern against the surface of the planet.

 

Normandy SR-2/In route out of Omega/2185

 

Shepard massaged his head; this was a complete nightmare.

First Cerberus brought her back to life and send her after the Collectors because no one in this fucking galaxy has done shit to prevent the incoming war against the Reapers.

She was wearing a white and black officer suit of Cerberus, but empty of any Cerberus symbols, she has been clear about that point, as soon as she entered the SR-2.

Get rid of any Cerberus symbols; she didn’t want to see the damn yellow logo; she had enough nightmares already about what she saw Cerberus doing, when she was hunting Sharen and despite owning them her live, she would be caught dead before dressing the symbol. It was mostly a safety precaution; out there, Cerberus had more than enough bad rep to any alien ship to shoot first and ask question to the survivors later.

“Please tell me you are yanking my leg here” said Shepard glaring at the hologram in front of her.

“I grant you it is no joke, I want you to get back to Omega as soon as you can and try to recruit the champion of the Arena called the Howler and if he became a problem during the mission, kill him” repeated the Illusive man; Aka Tim or Timmy as Kasumi has nicknamed the man with a mocking voice.

“Are you serious?” Shepard was dangerously close to loose her patience here; ok, the man has brought her from the death; nasty experience that one, she still had some nasty scars on the face that proves her passing to the great beyond.

“ I recruited Mordin and Archangel in Omega and when I leave the fucking system, you had an epiphany and just remember...ey, lets call Shepard and tell her to do our dirty job against an unknown enemy; sure, she will be more than happy to help” mocked Shepard playing her own charade so the cold bastard could get the point loud and clear.

“It is not a joke Shepard, this Howler is one of the most dangerous fighters in the galaxy” explained TIM “ he has defeated, crippled, trampled or simply butchered with his bare hands” remarked this last point “ all the Omega underground arena has thrown at him and he and Cerberus has butt heads in a lot of occasions, despite our shady past; all our analyst are sure that he will be an inestimable ace in your fight against the Collectors”.

Shepard made a pause and digested the last part, wait, his bare hands?; that could be interesting and he hated Cerberus so perhaps having the man ;or whatever species the Howler was; around could be another bullet for when she gave Cerberus the middle finger.

“I take you have already sent the dossiers to Kelly” said Shepard sighing.

“Yeoman chambers had already all the information we have on this Howler” nodded TIM “ good luck out there Sheppard, you will need it to deal with this”.

TIM cut the connection and left a little surprised Shepard, it was the first time he has seen TIM show a bit of emotion, this Howler could be a real asset or he would try to kill them all at first sight.

Sighing again she called Joker and asked him to change the route back to Omega, they have another loose cannon to pick up; looks like TIMs supreme annalist forgot this one.

“Damn it” replied Joker “ couldn’t he remember that, Before, we hit the relay?”

Shepard smiled and walked out of the Briefing room.

Since she just awakened from a two years and a few months' coma, she couldn’t take a second to meditate what the hell has happened here...

Two wonderful years completely lost doing nothing; she was dead; she had a good excuse about what has she been doing, but the rest of the space where just sitting on their thumbs; waiting for another miracle save their collective asses from the inferno. Damn, damn all to hell.

Their implants sent a spike of pain into her brain and she just leaned against the wall of the corridor before passing through the lab, she need to put some of the latest upgrades she had picked in the shady black markets of Omega. She has been reconstructed form scratch inside a Cerberus facility, brought back from the dead by the last state-of-the-art technology Cerberus could find or create, just to bring back one crazy Vanguard, who died when a collector ship blow her beautiful ship out the sky. Shepard shook her head and keep walking, she had a work to do, she had to send those motherfuckers back to the cesspit they have crawled their way out and save the damn galaxy; again.

Two years and no one has done shit to prepare for the invasion; sons of a bitch, what the hell did she die for then?.

Gulping down those feelings, she just walk into the lab, pour the last upgrades from her omnitool into the console and let Edi make the requisition of the materials, so Jacob, Garrus and Mordin could put those upgrades to good use.

“How is it going doctor?” saluted the salarian who was very engrossed on the last data acquired about how to develop a counter measure against the swarms they found in Freedom progress; she really wanted to have Tali at her side again; the quarian was not only the best engineer she never meet but a very good girl too.

“Ah, Shepard, good, good, the lab is great, the IA is quite helpful, the data are quite detailed and there is tissue samples to work with, it is a nice lab, despite being Cerberus ship but desperate times makes desperate allies” the Salarian make a pause to inhale again and keep working on the console in front of him.

She chuckled; it was like talking with a hamster on caffeine, she left the lab and the doc didn’t even raise the head.

One thing Shepard must admit; Cerberus did know how to make ships, there was a few things that she would change; but in general she could be colored impressed after the tour the yeoman and Miranda give around the ship. And talking about the devil; Yeoman Kelly chambers was a funny girl who was capable of finding beauty on every race of the galaxy, Shepard like the positive attitude of the girl and she was a very competent Yeoman after all, she filtered all messages incoming and keep an eye on the good mental health of the crew.

“Ey Kelly” saluted Shepard to the auburn haired girl.

“Commander” smiled the girl “There is a new message on your private terminal” informed the girl.

“Thanks, by the way did you receive the new possible recruit dossier?” said Shepard before turning to the terminal.

“Yes commander; fascinating lecture” smiled Kelly, she was so adorable... “despite being only known for a year and half, this Howler looks like some kind of wandering fighter; he appears in the arena, wins soundly any match and then disappears as soon as the fights ends; half of the Terminus systems merc groups fear him like the plague, although he works mostly solo”.

“We have two witnesses of his achievements aboard” commented Kelly passing her fingers over her data pad “ Doctor Solus and Crewman Rolston”.

“Send the dossier to my terminal in my quarters, I will read it later, I’m going to have a talk with those two about our possible recruit” said Shepard and Kelly nodded before being back to her terminal.

She was about to pick a drink in the bar on the Port observation room; Cerberus put a bar on her ship and for that alone Shepard more than grateful; she need a drink much more often than before; but before she could get to the crew deck she picked up the incoming message.

Shepard blinked a few times after reading the contents of the message, it seems that her return to the universe has agitated some hornets nest and among those, there was some higher ups in the alliance that wanted to know the truth.

Her mom among them.

But work come first and he was too busy right now to do the call; she was not scared senseless about the prospect of calling her mom, not at all.

“EDI could you find where Crewman Rolston is?” asked Shepard to the ships AI, another of those Cerberus godsend for his little mission of stopping the collectors, a real, functional AI, she; better to be accustom to call her she; was useful beyond belief despite her and Joker constant bickering against each other.

“He is at the Observation port along Crewman Gabriella Daniels and Crewman Kenneth Donnely” answered the AI instantaneously “anything else Commander?”.

“No, that will be all” shook the head Shepard, he was at the bar, figures...

“Logging you out” the AI shut and Shepard walked to the elevator, massaging her head and trying to wrap her head about all this bullshit that was happening around her.

She leaned against the elevator walls and waited patiently to reach the crew deck; she had more than enough on her plate already to deal with that shit, as soon as he found out if this Howler was real or not she will call mom and...

And what the hell will she told mom?.

_Hi mom, I’m alive and on another crazy ass mission to bring down an alien race of slavers and monsters who want all of us death or who knows for what and we suspect they are just a cover for the Reapers...ah, by the way, the only ones who has done shit in two fucking years are the terrorist organization called Cerberus, who bring me back from the death, give a crew, believe all the shit I had to pass for taking down Saren, rebuild my ship and give a blank paycheck to buy, collect or recruit anything I could need to bring down those fuckers._

Ok, now she really need a drink, a really long and hard drink; god that line went to a very dark place.

The doors opened and Shepard exited to the crew deck, the moral was good but she has to admit that the food could be better; combat rations could be as nutritious as you want but it does short work for the moral as you are practically eating something that taste like chalkboard half of time. As soon as she could, she swore she would found those provision Gardner wanted, it will be best for all of them if they could at last eat something edible before entering into a life or death situation. She nodded to the few crewmen on the hall, at this hour it was no surprise to be few persons around, Miranda will be busy on her chambers and Kasumi will be around the ship doing who knows what; there are few things to stole aboard and she has already put her clear that if she touches her model collection, she would flay her alive, with her biotics.

The doors of the Observation port opened and all the three technicians, Rolston, Kenneth and Gabby saluted immediately but she just tell them to be at ease, she prefered to have a flowing relation with her crew; she knew that ruling a ship by fear could work for the batarians but in the long run, loyalty was much better than fear.

“What can we do for you commander?” asked Gabby as Kenneth poured her a drink; that single action make her realize that perhaps she has indeed drunk a bit too much lately but the fucking upgrades of Cerberus made her impossible to be put under the table, except if she drank a barrel of rynkol.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you Rolston” smiled Shepard accepting the glass but don’t drinking for it.

“Me commander?” replied the technician a bit confused.

“In the last dossier of our possible recruits, your name was mentioned as one of the few who had ever contact with a man called Howler” said Shepard and she did take note of how Rolston recognize the name “who is this Howler?”.

“Er...I don’t know how to explain without sound crazy” confess the man.

“Rolston you are talking to a dead woman, brought back to life by your Executive officer” refreshed Shepard the memory of all of them “ I think I could be a little open minded”.

“He was the savior of our colony” said Rolston and Shepard raised an eyebrow.

“Two years ago, a group of batarian slavers raid our colony; he was there, resupplying his ship, he appeared from nowhere and single handily kill all of them” explained Rolston with almost reverence in the voice.

“Sound very similar to your history commander” commented Keneth talking about the Elysium incident.

“Yeah” nodded Rolston “ but Howler killed them all with his bare hands and a big fucking sword” added Rolston to the astonishment of everyone in the room and Shepards memory pick an image of a towering giant with a wolf helmet that save her and her team asses in the final battle with Saren.

“He wouldn’t have any wolf motives in clothes, didn’t he?” asked Shepard.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t there and there are no proofs of what he done, except the cleaning afterward” answered Rolston “he saved us and in exchange, he just took his supplies and left”.

“Sounds like some kind of saint” muttered Gabby “ do you have any image of this Howler?” asked curious the technician.

“No, unfortunately no” sound dejected Rolston “ he hated any kind of publicity or fame, there is nothing left from the attacks, no vid, no proofs, all clean, in all honesty the people who saw him, said he was fucking scary”.

“And you obeyed?” smiled Kenneth “ that’s sounds odd; surely there will be at last one asshole who thought that the vid could be great material to sell the Alliance or merc bandits if this Howler is half of what you tell us”.

“That’s the thing” admitted Rolston “ he knew it; he knew everything, he was capable of stare at you for a moment and simply pierce your damn soul and bitch slap you with your worst secrets, like he was talking about the weather”.

“Damn it; I don’t know if I can believe you pal but, hell, we are working under a supposedly dead lady so...” laughed Kenneth.

“Thanks for the info Rolston” said Shepard leaving the glass on the counter, she hasn’t taken a sip of it, and it has taken a lot of will of her; she was going to stop drinking so much and this was as good start as any other “ continue with your break”.

“Will do commander” saluted all of them to the leaving woman who walked out of the observation port and took route to the main battery room at the end of the cryogenic pods.

There was something she need now, at it was to talk with a friend, someone who could trust to cover her back and don’t sucker punch her, when the things went to hell, for the moment the only one who could cover that spot in this damn ship was none other than the inimitable Garrus Vakarian.

Shepard couldn’t suppress a smile when she remembered the though Turian, being embarrassed about his nickname “Archangel”, the name the citizens of Omega gave to him for the good deeds he and his team did for the less favored people of that cesspit called Omega.

The ex-Seg-C officer bring together a band of misfits and make a team of them to run havoc into the merc bands of Omega and make them pay every time they cross the line; looks like it didn’t end well, but Shepard was proud of her turian friend; he was one of the few that has tried to do something for small it was, to change this piece of shit they call universe.

The doors opened and she could see the back of the armor of Garrus; as he continues calibrating the main gun; as soon as he entered the ship he suggested that he could be able to upgrade the ship weaponry into a prototype of Thanix cannon that the Turian government has been developing but whose blueprints just got its way into the black market and considering the deep pockets Cerberus has provided Sheppard with, she was more than happy to spent a fortune to have a big fucking gun in her ship that could kick the Collector ass, the next time they cross fires.

“Ey scarface do you have a minute?” smiled Shepard.

Garrus turned with a twitch on his mandibles and Shepard could only wince at the sight of the state of Garrus face; half of it was an amalgam of scar tissues and cybernetics. Not it didn’t give him a rough attractiveness of a hardened veteran; unlike Zaeed who was simply ugly as hell; but she knew that it could have been prevented, she almost lost a friend out there for not being quick enough.

“Ha, Oh, Shepard please don’t make my laugh” tried to smile; Turian way; Garrus “what can I do for you Shepard?”.

“What´s your opinion about this?” Shepard flashed her omnitool for the Turian to read an edited version of the message, Garrus was a friend but there are things that are private.

“I take we are going after Howler” commented Garrus.

“Five minutes after I talk with TIM about this Howler; and let me told you that Tim fears him” said Shepard and Garrus mandible twitched a little in surprise, nothing seemed to alter the collect TIM “I received this message”.

“I doubt Miranda, EDI, or even Kelly would have forged something like this” muttered Garrus, always the Seg-C detective “It would go against her creed of make you focused on the mission and the so call Howler wasn’t among the dossiers they give to you so...”.

“ _Kelly uh?”_ mussed Shepard on her mind about the use of the first name of Yeoman Chambers and her girly part make a short squeal of interest and an odd pang of disappointment.

“I talk with Rolston” nodded Shepard “ this merc is real and as interesting matter, he killed a party of batarian slavers with a sword” pointed Shepard “doesn’t ring any bell for you?” smiled Shepard waiting for Garrus to make the connections.

“Iron wolf?, the giant wolf man?” twitched his mandibles Garrus in surprise “ there was two of them?”.

“I though that too, at first” nodded Shepard “ but Rolston couldn’t verify it, he was like a ghost, no vids, no data, nada, zero” shrugged Shepard “ I am quite intrigued if Iron Wolf was the one behind the nickname Howler and how come TIM fears him so much”.

“So, back to Omega uh?” laughed Garrus and his expression turned pained as the stitches remind him that his face was still on his skull by the thin of a paper and a ton of stitches “I bet Aria will not be pleased with us after what we have done in her little station”.

“She will get over with, she is a grown up girl” smiled Shepard shrugging, the problems the so call pirate queen could have are something that matters little to Shepard, she didn’t like the arrogant and ruthless asari; there was something about her that enervates her all the bad ways “did you ever heard anything about this Howler during your time in Omega?”.

“Just rumors” shrugged Garrus “ he was unbeatable in the arena and he has killed anyone stupid enough try to double cross him in or out the arena; still, he only appeared for his fights and then left like the wind, apart from that all the mercs tend to get as far as they can from him, perhaps Mordin could know more; perhaps one of the fighters of the arena could have ended on his clinic” suggested the Turian.

Talking with Garrus always put her in good mood; the Turian shared her sense of humor, both of them are hardened veterans and by so, they have common ground in the knowledge of all could be gone apeshit at a second notice. She left Garrus calibrating the Thanix cannon, soon the weapon would be ready and Shepard was dying for testing the thing against a real enemy; perhaps they could hit a pair of asteroids when they entered a system so they could see if the targeting systems and the power output of the weapon is adequate for the new and shiny Normandy SR-2. She swore her baby will not be destroyed again, not if she could say something about it and installing all the upgrades she could find, stole or borrow, was a good for preventing her baby to be a space hulk.

Omega.

Her destiny again, she was starting to get very tired of that place, not that she was blind to the realities of this galaxy but that place was a hell hole who only deserved to be purified by fire and transform into something less toxic.

She knew; because she had seen it when they were recruiting Garrus and Mordin there; several well known batarian pirates; a dozen of mercs leaders with quite the sum over their heads, enough trafficking and smuggling to justify a nuclear purification of the blasted station; yet no one does shit about it, happy to let Aria reign like the all powerful queen bee of the colony. Shepard hated the station and now she had to get back to that accursed place; hopefully it would be the last time, however this time could be different, as the person they were supposedly going to recruit is one that had TIM shaking on his ten thousand credits shoes; and that’s always a good thing in her book.

Taking the elevator to her private quarters; or the presidential suit; as the crew called the place; she pondered what could have done this “Howler” to shackle the Ice king leader of Cerberus; she hated the man with a passion and she has just meet him three times, everyone of them she had the impression of being talking with a nicely dress scorpion.

Ok, he has been wandering in the galaxy for a year and half more or less; that explained why he hasn’t been famous before but gaining such a reputation, in such a short time, spoke volumes of the skills or how dangerous the Howler could be. She stopped the elevator and moved to the lab as Garrus suggested, she could have done it before but she had a lot of things in her head right now and the message has only confused her more, still, lets see what Mordin know about the last possible recruit.

As soon as she entered the lab she smiled to see the doc has not even moved and inch from the last position she has seen him stood; engrossed into the investigation about the collectors and their damn swarms.

“Ey doc, do you have a minute?” asked Shepard calling the attention of the old salarian.

“Oh, Shepard, sure, just give me a minute to run some simulations, these Collectors are fascinating, part living tech, part machine, they look like an amalgam; would love to have some real tissues samples but they decompose in an accelerated rate that makes almost impossible to pick up some real good samples” the salarian stopped and took breath before focusing on the woman in front of her “ but you are here for other questions, its too soon for me to develop a real anti collector counter measures, no real medical problems, perhaps the scars?, no Doc Chawkas is very professional, she would know instantly so...”.

“Take a breath doc” laughed Shepard, the doc was always fun to see talk and think like and excited hyperactive child with too many toys to focus only on one “ I am here because you might have some intel on our newest possible recruit”

“Oh how come?” the curiosity of the salarian was pick up by that last statement.

“ We are back to Omega to try to pick up the Howler” said Shepard and she was surprised how Mordin expression change for one of curiosity to another of surprise and no little apprehension.

“Did you know him already?” guessed Shepard.

“Only once, terrific man” said the doctor nodding his head “I mostly dealed with his victims”.

“Victims?, I thought he was a fighter and wait, man?, he is human?” Shepard was expecting a Krogan warlord to be the champion of the Omega arena but a human?, and anti-Cerberus?.

“Bad choice of words” corrected himself Mordin “ I treated some of his opponents in the arena; the ones who impress him enough to left them go alive, but a little maimed; I could see that this man could have killed all of his rivals but instead he disabled all of them with efficiency and quickness only seen in highly trained military specialist; the other ones...I must admit that I have seen Krogan warlords shown much less brutality and raw violence in the middle of a blood rage attack”.

“Damn” simple said Shepard “ but you said you meet him once”.

“Yes a very interesting experience” smiled the Doctor “ still, I couldn’t say if this man was a monster, a genius or a madman” tell the salarian.

“ He brought to the clinic a gravely wounded quarian; she had the suit punctured and a pair of bullet wounds form a mid caliber automatic weapon, perhaps an avenger or a vindicator, without any mods; he waited patiently for me to save the quarian but he did some very fascinating and clever remarks about how to improve her suit and health, that no simply thug would have done; he has either a medicine grade of some sorts or a grade in advanced mechanics and cybernetics...probably both” the salarian make a pause and take some breath before continue his tale.

“ But a group of Blood pack came into the clinic and demanded the quarian to be handed to them, as she has a debt with the Blood pack; Howler raise from his chair and walked to the Blood pack, picking a Vorcha and torn him in half with his bare hands, before asking, very politely, to the rest of the pack to get the hell out of the clinic; that they were disturbing the patients, frankly, I couldn’t have said it, better” laughed the Salarian.

“ I was about to throw then some stun grenades and them shoot them in the head but Howler win me by the hand and kill all of them in a display of martial prowess that I have only seen in Drell assassins and Asari commandos of the highest caliber; what impressed me the most, was how he show apprehension when the quarian hug him and thanked him for saving her life; looks like the quarian did a favor to him, when his shuttle was in the Omega dock and he was simply paying back the favor” ended the tale the Salarian.

“I could never forget the man and his dark gray armor, he was a towering human of eight feet and half, that dwarfed even a krogan; unfortunately he was wearing a black hood and I couldn’t even see his face but he was unmistakeable human; highly cybernetic and genetically enhanced human, but human nonetheless”.

“Thank for the information doc” said and stunned Shepard “ I can't still decide if we should recruit this monster or just slowly, walk away from him” commented the woman.

“More or less what I thought about him after I meet him” smiled the Salarian.

 

Omega/Afterlife/Aria balcony

 

Aria T´loak; undisputed queen of Omega; was enjoying a drink on her balcony pondering about the latest events that had taken place on her station and not liking them a bit. She toyed with her drink and took a sip of the strong beverage before returning to her meditations. First of all the returning of Shepard was a good and bad news altogether in an explosive package; the former Spectre had the unique ability to provoke chaos and mayhem wherever she went; and her appearance on omega did provoke both of them.

She saved the eastern districts and put and end to a plague that could have kill everyone in the station save the blood pack and then, she decimated the Vorcha population. That was a plus.

Exterminated all three leaders of the Blood pack, the Blue suns and the Eclipse along a hundred of freelance hired guns, along two buildings and half of the district on where she went to pick up Archangel and recruit him into her team. Plus and minus.

Plus, she got out of her ass those three pricks of Garm, Jaroth and Tarak.

Minus, all the three biggest mercenary fractions will be under a civil war under someone grew a quad and took the mantle of the leadership; the fights for these will make the blood flow in Omega and cause some serious damage before she would be obliged to act and put the mercs on their place or something.

Plus, Shepard give her some interesting proofs about how all three of them pretended to double cross her at some time and kill her in a three-way alliance between them. Aria was not an idiot and knew that despite she had the control over their asses in Omega, they could overrun her by numbers, if they came to her place in full numbers.

Minus, Shepard has decimated the military forces of Omega, Aria had enough loyal men to keep the station on check but all the merc bands put some of their men to the mission of keep Omega out of the Aliance, Cerberus, Turian, Salarian or whatever hands they pretend to control HER station.

In resume, Shepard has done more good than evil but her presence was like a typhoon, as soon as she was out of her station the better.

Suddenly one of her guards tensed and Aria growled mentally, this was getting annoying lately, how she was losing respect in the station as every single gun-ho out there, thought that they could enter at their fucking whim and demand things from her.

However, this time, it was completely different, this time Aria look over her couch and swore loudly, surprising the rookie guards surrounding her as they have never seen Aria lose the composure like that before. The veterans knew better what had push Arias buttons and they completely agree with the Queen of Omega; the thing that was opening a straight line in the crowds of the afterlife was one of those things in the universe that you Don’t want to fuck. Not if you want to keep your body in one piece and your family alive.

Standing like a sore thumb, the massive form of the gladiator called the Howler, was walking at his own pace inside the Afterlife, cutting the usual crowd on the bar like a shark, a bank of little fishes. His standard gray armored suit and his black wolf helmet made him completely recognizable even in the middle of a place like Afterlife, where the lights and the sounds were designated to erode even the strongest will.

Despite being only armed with a knife; well, more a sword for any other race except the krogan; and a pistol, no one in the balcony doubted that the Howler was as dangerous as a Krogan in the middle of a blood rage.

And every fucking time, he got inside of the place, he brought nothing but bad news and a single advertisement to get the hell out of his way, otherwise, the casualties count will be doubled and Omega will soon found itself in serious need of personnel.

The mercs bands quickly discovered that, after the first massacre at his hands, when Howler cleaved a path in the middle of a Blood pack squadron, the time they tried to stole his strange ship, the _Fenris,_ when it was docked in the low levels of Omega.

However, a quarian tech friend of him, managed to activate the defenses of the shuttle and blow the mercs to kingdom come with enough fire power to put a Turian heavy tank to shame; Aria saw the holes the auto cannons had left in the place and she had never seen something like that out of a fucking Frigate. That was one of the reason why she hated the monster with a passion, he was so out of her control, she can not bride, threat or even corrupt the fucking man.

That assuming he was a man and not some kind of mech.

No, she has seen him bleed in the arena, so there was flesh and blood under that gray armored suit of him, that just added more wood to the fire, no human could be so big, not within the actual technology; unless he was some kind of super soldier gone rouge or any other bullshit like that. Well, it was not so preposterous, recently she has had the pleasure of meeting the living and kicking Commander Shepard, a supposedly dead heroine of the Council, who has just returned from the after life in a very odd manner and now worked under Cerberus banner, no matter how strongly she argued opposite.

Cerberus pays her, so she was theirs, the universe works that way, most of the times, and when not...then you had things like the fucking Howler roaming around.

Aria mentally prepared herself, every time she talked with the Howler, she had the impulse of shooting the thing and after that drink a barrel of rynkol; there was something on him that seriously enervated the Queen of Omega, and it was not just his appearance and super-size mass. Aria knew very well, that no matter how big you are, a bullet in your head or blowing you up with enough explosives could take anything out. Patriarch is one of those examples for her but she feared that in the case of the Howler, she will need a nuke to completely took him out. But, it was not the first time, someone tried to blow him to kingdom come by shooting a missile or start throwing grenades at him like there was no tomorrow, and in all of those cases, he had walk away of the attack, unharmed and with a new trophy hanging from his belt. Usually the head of the cretin who attacked him.

She clicked her tongue when two of the newest guards tried to stop the Howler, before he could enter into the private balcony, the Howler just walk past them like they were not there, pushing them apart, one of them rose his weapon only to froze when he saw the very sharp edge of the massive knife of the Howler in front of his terrified eyes.

Howler turn his wolf head to Aria and spoke in a machine like tone that send shivers through the spine of all of them, except Aria who was ready to deal with this monster in human like appearance.

“Teach better your minions, Asari” the voice had nothing to envy to the fucking grim reaper “ this youngster are too stupid to be carrying guns around”.

“They are guards Howler” snorted Aria “ they are guarding”.

“Useless” he twirled the knife a pair of times before sheathing it back to his scabbard in his hip “ they are not prepared for this Asari, they are young, inexperienced and with guns too much over their heads, and this are your protectors?”.

Aria was fuming inside and for a second she considered the possibility of order fire and slam him with the most powerful biotic throw she could muster in such a short notice but Aria was not Queen Bitch for being stupid.

It seems like his guard was low but he had taken his knife and put in front of the poor bastard before anyone could even see him doing it, even if they were six guards around her and she could call four times that number from the surrounding Afterlife, she knew that this man will butcher them apart and then will proceed to tear apart her bar and station. She had enough proof of the immense power this man had and she hated him for not being a pawn for her or just leave Omega and carry his grudges to any other place.

Reigning Omega was already difficult enough to add him to the mix.

He was like a missile, he didn’t care for who is he going to hit as long as he hit something, once his path or objective is settled; there is little hope for anything that stands on his path, she has managed to turn his attention to some profitable objectives for her, and that has been already difficult enough.

With a snort of despise, the man turned his attention to the Pirate Queen of Omega, there was something on his red lenses that put Aria on guard, this was not the usual meeting between them, when he came to advise her to get he fuck out of his way before he tore apart the station. Aria knew of his wealthy carrier as gladiator of the arena, the undefeated champion for almost a year, no matter what they toss at him, from Varrens to Krogan, he just slaughters them all. Rumors said that the entrepreneurs of the arena were trying to infiltrate a camera inside the Krogan rite of passage and they will suffer and orgasm if they manage to sold that vid to a real Trid media, not to mention how they wanted to see how well could fare their gray golden boy against the things that the krogan used to roughen up their whelps.

“Why are you here Howler?” asked bluntly Aria, more than eager to get rid of such an uncontrollable warmonger “ Is not today your greatest match in the arena?”.

“My last match” corrected the man and Aria raised an eyebrow suddenly very interested, does that means that he is leaving her station?, oh goddess that would be fucking great “this night will be the last time I fought in that arena, the place has already lost any interest for me, there is nothing that I could call a challenge anymore, hopefully this last match will be something to remember”.

“And why I am honored to be informed of that?” Aria was not stupid and really appreciated her purple skin to be unblemished by things like sharpnel or knives, so she was just asking why the hell has this monster to came here and told her that?.

He wanted something so much she was completely sure of.

“This will be the last day I will be on Omega” said the man and Aria almost shouted in joy, she will get rid at last of this pest made flesh “ the Runes had told that a Lioness will come for me and she will bring me war, real war and not this childish things all of you called battles”.

Aria did not understand what the hell was he talking about, runes?, sure whatever, but the last part about a lioness did ring a bell on her head, and when it clicked she didn’t like it at all.

“ _Goddess, Shepard is back to Omega”_ she sighed and grunted mentally.

 

Normandy SR-2/Omega Relay/Armory

 

Speaking about said commander, she was suiting herself in the armory of the Normandy; after she put her shadeless blue armor; the N7 logo proudly displayed over her heart; she walked into the armory and start talking to Jacob, about the last beauties the weapon dealers has created for the two years she had been on ice. Back in her time, the HMWA line of assault rifles and HMWSG line of shotguns were the wet dream of all military personnel of the galaxy but some time after she has been kill by the Collector vessel, some genius came out with the thermal clip tech and nowadays almost any weapon worthy of that name came with that tech.

As a Vanguard; she loved the combat close and personal; she blows the shit with biotics and her shotgun, however, she had learned that an automatic assault rifle fired at zero distance could do wonders; specially against fleshy targets like Vorcha, just change the ammo with a beautiful mod available in the black market and you can pierce through shields like they weren’t there.

So she just wanted to test out if carrying different kind of weapons could bode well with her own and brutal style of combat; violent even for the Vanguard standard; for this mission she will go with M-6 Carnifex heavy pistol that pack exactly the kind of devastating punch she wanted in a weapon and an always useful ML-77 missile launcher, full of love and rainbows. However, she still had doubts about what kind of rifles would she carry and Jacob; a Vanguard as her but more traditional in his shotgun plus heavy gun combo; was trying to help her, find the perfect weapon for a Vanguard.

“What about the Vindicator?” asked the black man who was having a very good time talking with another true soldier and not one of those troops of Cerberus that were mostly rebounds of Alliance programs “it had the perfect mix of ammo capability and fire power”.

“Not convinced” frown Shepard with a sigh “it does look appealing but I need quick and devastating power and at the same time, being capable of taking down a long distance target who is out of biotic range”.

“Picky aren’t you Shepard?” smiled the man with good humor; the Commander does know her stuff and that’s something ok in Jacobs book.

She pouted and let the Vindicator; already compacted on the table.

Jacob smile widened and took from the armory closet another weapon; one of the most exotic pieces he had ever saw; he would never use that thing but the Commander wanted something special and more than this thing, few things were.

“Ok, what about given them a piece of their own medicine?” Jacob put the experimental Collector assault rifle on the desk along the dozen pieces, mods and dismounted weapons that usually covered the workplace.

“Do not even think about it” whispered Shepard glaring daggers at the weapon “ I don’t care if it is a damn godsend, I prefer don’t touch anything of those bastards”.

“As you wish Commander, honestly I found the damn thing highly disturbing too” confessed Jacob getting the prototype back into the cabin where it would have never got out; this bio thing tech was utterly alien even for the aliens; Garrus had said almost the same when he saw the rifle.

“So what is left?” said Shepard compacting her Carnifex after checking it had the mods for incendiary and cryo ammo; soon she had to install the new and unique armor-piercing mod that Garrus had on his guns.

“Apart from the good, old Avenger, the M-96 Mattlock” Jacob put the guns on the desk.

Shepard took the Mattlock and extend it, noticing the weight of the gun and the low ammo it carried but at the same time the target magnification and the caliber of the weapon.

“Uh, nice thing, it remembers me the rifles that the Colonist militias do have” commented Shepard noticing how with a little tweaking, the gun could pack quite the punch.

“Is the same design but upgraded with the last state-of-the-art materials and thermal clip tech” shrugged Jacob “ it was actually EDIs idea, she said to TIM, that better than state of the art experimental weapons, perhaps some good old fashion war probed weapons could do good for the mission”.

“EDI” called Shepard and AI appeared near the console.

“Yes commander Shepard?”.

“Thank you” said the Commander smiling widely after checking out the specifications of the weapon.

“You welcome commander” and the AI almost look confused “ anything else commander?”.

Jacob was quietly laughing his ass off but being clever enough to do it as discrete as he could; he has seen Shepard on action and understood perfectly well why she was called the Lioness.

It was more than accurate...

“No, EDI but believe me, Thank you for bitch slapping TIM and bring me this wonderful gift” said Shepard compacting the weapon and locking it at her back to get accustom to his size and weight.

It was surprisingly similar to the old HMWSG that she used, it was another plus in her book by the way.

“Logging you out Sheppard” said the AI and Jacob couldn’t resist.

“You are confusing an AI” pointed out the man.

“Not really a surprise” sound the mocking voice of Garrus at the entrance when he appeared with his battered blue armor “ she managed to insult a Reaper by shouting at him “get the fuck off, you arrogant piece of pompous metal” quoted the Turian picking his own weapons for his own box in the armory.

“It was justified, that shit called me, insignificant and retarded monkey” pouted the woman loading some clips into her back.

The Mattlock had a real low ammo capacity but the punch did compensate the low capacity and besides she was more accustom to biotics plus guns than just guns, so it was no real flaw in her mind.

Jacob glared the Turian as he picked up his highly modified Mantis; the sniper rifle was so tuned that it would probably only be of use for the Turian; along another Mattlock, looks that he and Shepard had quite the same tastes in weaponry.

“Literally?” asked Jacob.

“Not exactly the same words Sovereign used but she nailed the feelings” diplomatically answered Garrus at the offended glance of Shepard, before she huffed and get out of the armory leaving the other two quietly laughing.

“She is going to skin you for that” commented Jacob passing Garrus some clips.

“Oh, most probably but I am one of the few who could tease the Lioness of Elysium like that and I pretend to milk that privilege for what is worth” laughed Garrus but he grunted after that “ ah; better be quiet for while; I don’t think I could take another missile to the face anytime sooner”.

“Tough son of a bitch” laughed Jacob waving the Turian good bye as he exited the room and heading for the elevator to the cargo bay.

Shepard was still huffing at Garrus for the mockery and the Turian did make his best Turian silent smile mandible twitching thing that infuriates her to no end. It was good to have Garrus back; she would have lost it without a friend aboard. As soon as Miranda entered the elevator she and Garrus get their minds into mission mood.

“Commander, Vakarian” said Miranda saluting both of them.

Shepard has tried to convince Miranda to be a bit less Ice queen around the crew; specially the old team; Garrus, Joker and Chawkas; it could do wonders to the moral if the crew knows that their CEO did care for them but it seems that she has a lot of work to do with her.

Garrus did a quick nod to the Australian brunette; he has nothing against the woman, Cerberus apart; if Shepard says you are ok, it was more than enough for him; Shepard was one of the best character judges he has seen; perhaps if she would have been around when he and his team were running amok on Omega, she would have seen Sidonis for the treacherous bastard he was but the universe is full of Ifs.

“Miranda” saluted Shepard “ ready to deploy?”.

“Yes commander but I have to ask, are we really going to recruit the Howler?” asked the woman with a hint of worry in her voice that didn’t go unnoticed by Shepard or Garrus, who paid more attention as the elevator went down to the cargo bay.

“Should have thought about it” face palmed Shepard.

Miranda was one of the top Cerberus agents, she would know the Howler better than the dossier she had read; despite being quite the tale, it was like the biography of a Krogan warlord.

“Yes Miranda, TIM insisted, looks like his wonderful annalist, reached the conclusion that he would be a wonderful weapon against the Collectors” said Shepard with a lot of sarcasm but soon she changed the tone “and I would have agreed with them, if it wasn’t for his blood feud against Cerberus; could you enlighten us why such a grudge?”.

Miranda sighed and waited till the elevator hit the cargo hold to pause it.

“There is no camera inside the elevator, is a blind spot for the surveillance systems and I asked EDI to erase all sound recordings of what I am going to pass to you”.

Miranda lightened her omnitool and send a quick package of data into Shepards omnitool.

“Look the vid when we are in Omega, out of the eyes of the Illusive man” said Miranda stepping out of the elevator and into the cargo bay; the Kodiak shuttle was ready and armored to bring them into one of the districts of Omega, the place where the arena coliseum is placed.

Shepard and Garrus shared an inquisitive glance; it looks like the shit has just got interesting.

 

Omega/Underground Arena/2185

 

The crow was cheering for the two fighters in the arena to end this already; the pair of krogans had been punching and smashing each other against the walls for almost half an hour already and despite the blood flying in every direction the combat has just get boring in the first ten minutes. It was the problem with the majority of the Korgan fights; they just simply try to overwhelm their opponents with their superior strength and mass, gobbling them to death before they could react and assuming their regeneration and armor will take care of any retaliations and consequences, such tactics could bring to them.

There still the problem, about what happens when the enemy is another Krogan and you couldn’t retort to a shotgun to the face, a good sledge hammer or a long and serrated hunting knife, the answer was happening in the middle of the arena when two battle masters of the Blood pack had decided to settle their differences on the ring, about who was in charge now, that Garm has kick the bucket against the fucking Archangel and the Blood pack is out of clear leadership. The crow was about a hundred spectators but that number will probably multiply by five at the time of the Howler combat; the arena managers had promised him a challenge and despite the fighter being almost out of the arena as they was nothing that could pose a problem to him; the challenge did pick, his curiousity. He has butchered his way trough all the arena has thrown at him, with a fury that could make a Krogan berserker in bloodrage look tame in comparison; no matter if the combat where bare handed or with weapons, he always exited victorious of the arena.

Several merc companies had offered him work, several times, but he always declined the offer no matter how good the deal was and in case it was a trap for trying to pocket the several rewards he has over his head he just kill ;in one of the most gruesome ways Omega has ever seen; the responsible of the trap and walk away to his shuttle and leave Omega again. Guided by an internal compass that no one has ever fathom, he does accept works for some little mercs bands; compared with Eclipse or Blue suns; from time to time, securing the success of the mission however this happens once in a blue moon and not all the mercs that came close to him, keep all theirs limbs intact; it was always a risk try to hire the Howler.

All the district of the Arena was dedicated to such shady business. The buildings are the houses and gyms of the permanent fighters, along some cage reconverted structures that hold the zoo of beast that the arena uses when the crow wanted something different or Aria was in one of those moods that demanded gory, bloody and public execution. Despite being one of the lesser populated, the quality of life in the arena was surprisingly good or at last, it is in the part where the fighters and mercs had their gyms and temporal residences. Has sense, considering that a good food and good style of life could keep the value of a fighter longer until a replacement came and took the spot.

The humans are short work in the arena but Krogan and asari; thanks to their long lives; are always a good inversion, if they are just more than a violent bunch more interested in blood than in became a real fighter. For the former, all the merc companies will be more than glad to take you with open arms as they would gladly pick all the cannon fodder they could muster before any of their most dangerous missions. The disappearance of Archangel with the infamous Commander Shepard, has cut short the resources of the merc companies and they had turned their eyes to the arena and the freelancers, in hope of replenishing their numbers as quick as possible.

The arena was one of another of the common recruiting grounds the merc companies have for a quick search of talent; their business was violence but that doesn’t means that any grunt could do the work just because he had talent for violence; still a knack and taste for violence was the trademark of the Blood pack along the Eclipse.

The vorcha loved the arena; they usually participate on the fights, in groups or individual, despite their low intelligence, all vorcha are quite resilient between their hard skin and fantastic regeneration, sometimes on par with the krogan. However, soon all the managers of the arena discovered that the vorcha are like a Varren pack; you let them gorge on the flesh of their victims and nothing more; the only difference are that the vorcha are clever enough to don’t shit everywhere like the varrens.

Violence was the trademark of the district, even more than in the rest of the station, where Aria men could cut any violence before it escalates into property damage but on the Arena district, everyone was responsible of his own shit; if you are not capable of defending, then you don’t deserve it. There were a dozen of safe places that were of limits for this rule and those where the place where the life systems maintenance were placed, along the energy lines, and the air and water pipes, the food stores were almost sacred grounds too; you could fight inside them if you want but NO fireguns, resolve all with knives or fist or claws or teeth whatever you want to dispatch your enemies.

In essence the district was his own kingdom, who had to pledge tribute and loyalty to the Queen Aria, she would let you be, if you respect the one and single rule of Omega.

Don’t fuck with Aria.

For the people in the district Aria was more a legend than an actual worry on their lives, every single one of the inhabitants of the district posses at last a weapon and knows how to use it; it was needed if you wanted to survive; the only exception were the slaves and the servants that the most sick merc bands and slavers have around their bases. Batarian slave rings mostly, they sell a lot of interesting beasts to the arena and bring dozens of possible fighters to the place, almost ninety percent of them dies in the first fight against a pack of varren, a vorcha or a krogan with an ax to grind in whoever was in his way that day. The district had their own rules and frontiers, mostly based on where the bigger and tougher organizations had chosen as main camp.

The Blood pack district was an urban ruin, on where the Blood pack mercs had their little camps, raiding all they want from around them only seeking a good fight.

The Eclipse had a long tower near the cab station, that controlled the traffic inside the district and takes good notice of who is retarded enough to shoot down a cab in a search for a quick loot. They will hunt the cretin and crucify the corpse, so the rest of the people knew that there were limits, no one has to cross.

The Blue suns had a little mech factory near the coliseum on where they proof and test prototype mechs, using them as security forces and possible gladiators for the arena, if the prototype is not good enough to take it for a field test out there.

The batarian slavers, the Vorcha pirates, and like them a dozen more, lesser organizations and war bands; had made their quarters inside the district as long as they are capable of stand his ground against everyone around them.

Aria, on the other hand, was more than happy to have them located and controlled, instead of having to deal with a dozen places; if its needed she would simply cut down the life support system and them let all die, just in case they grew more greedy that what should be good for Omega and pretend to expand outside the place she had let them have in Her station.

The arena itself was a metal construction that was surrounded by an empty circle of rubble, that was modified by a crew of mechs, programmed to clean and modify the scenery every single combat. From a single ring, to an open imitation of an urban battlefield, where the bands has to hunt and kill each other with knives and all kind of improvised weaponry. For this night although; it will only be a ten meters radius squared cage on where the Howler and his opponent, will have a single unharmed combat till death or surrender; most the latter than the former, if the bet runners could have a say in the outcome of the match; the Howler was the all times favorite of the arena, but this night the managers of the arena had a nasty surprise for him.

The beting will only be open for five minutes and only by omnitool, after both contestants enter in the arena and be ready for the combat; the public will only be allowed to place a bet by omnitool so there will be no cheating and no forgery of the winning tickets, the initial bet was about to be high, five hundred credits in deposit as soon as you made the bet and be reimbursed after the winner is declared beyond doubt. Usually, the arena enthusiasts would see some kind of scam in these conditions but the arena had a solid and reliable reputation of being fair in his deals; they have never failed to pay or collect the debts they have around the mercs or any other important people around Omega in that moment.

It was no real surprise than several Pirate lords, slavers, crime lords and all kind of scum had a liking for the bloody sports the arena patch to them through the extranet and all kind of live vids of the best combats that took place in the coliseum. It was a common distraction for all kind of underground rings out there; there could be unique arenas out there like the varren rings on Tuchanka but Omega always had the best spectacles, that was for sure.

In any case, in this night there will be several vips around the place and the owners of the arena wanted a real spectacle for them this time; not only Aria in person would be around but she will have a retinue of most interesting guests along her. Former death Spectre Jane Lionel Shepard, and her ground team, among whose could probable be the one and only Archangel.

They were the vips of tonight, along a five hundred spectators from all kind of merc companies and groups that only wanted to see the Howler fight. If you are not inside with the monster, seeing him in action is always a fucking spectacle.

A dozen of mechs were very busy dealing with the creation of the ring and the cage, assembling the highly resilient bars of the metal cage, in a way that even if they try to scape the place, it will be impossible. The only way to get out of the cage will be dead or victorious; the owners had pretty much assured both possible outcomes; from the choice of fighters to the choice of stage, to the bets; all was a very prepared stage for a good spectacle, so their fame would expand beyond Omega and perhaps even being able to deal a contract with a galactic broadcasting company. It was a long shot dream but at the time, perhaps it could be possible and this match could be the perfect next step to that goal.

Unfortunately there was three sides on this eventful night of combat, that had put their own plans already in motion; every each of them wanted a piece of the Howler by their own personal reasons and goals and the Howler on the other hand, will be more than glad to provide them with what they desire.

Floating over the tops of the buildings, a red cab carrying Shepard, Miranda and Garrus went at ease pace to the Colliseum, as they had been invited by Aria herself to join them into the private vips lounge she had over the arena floor. EDI told them of the sudden invitation, as soon as they set foot on the station surface and seeing it could be good to be in diplomatic good relations with Aria and Omega in general; one of the few ports that would welcome them even if they screw up big time out there; they accepted.

As a side note, it would prevent a lot of possible altercate with all the three bigger mercs bands in Omega as Garrus aka Archangel, will be walking among them with only a long and viciously serrated knife. She knew carrying Garrus back was a bad idea but she need two things right now; first, a friend who could trust her back no matter what and a living walking proof that she was Not a Cerberus bitch.

Garrus cover both requirements and having Miranda around as second in command; mark that line, second in command; would only say that she is the one calling the shoots here and not the other way around. Cerberus may be the one paying the bills but she was Jane Lionel Shepard, N7 fucking elite and Spectre of the Citadel and to the hell with whoever thinks otherwise. At the time she was looking along with Garrus to a very interesting vid of a group of Cerberus operatives that were hunting a bear like thing in a forgotten planet, before the bear like thing revealed to be a gigantic human, who kill them all and smashed the vid recorder of the mission with a last warning message.

“I had more than enough of this pitiful hunts” was the commanding and violent tone of the voice “ go back to your delusional master and told him that this is the last warning, Cerberus will no more try to hunt me; I will never reveal my secrets to you delusional man, I will only reveal my secrets to those who earn my trust”.

Garrus and Shepard raised and eyebrow; well in Garrus case a twitching mandible; and shared a look before smiling widely and said the same thing at the same time, much for Miranda exasperation.

“Delusional man?”.

Miranda sighed after hearing that; she knew she will never hear the end of it.

“That was priceless, how come any of us come with it before?” said Garrus finding the clever joke more than ok in his book.

“I don’t know but this Howler is getting more and more points in my book every time I get a piece of information about him” nodded Shepard flashing a grin to Miranda who sighed, it looks that her faith in the professionalism of the commander and the Turian was a little misplaced.

“Did you see how he broke the neck of the trooper?” asked suddenly Shepard to Garrus and Mirada look confused for a second “ he didn’t use any biotics on that move”.

“Before, I would have said it was impossible but now I am not so sure” nodded Garrus “ you will need the strength of a krogan to do something like that and he was dressing only pelts; still what impress me more is how it is impossible to make a good picture of his face or body, he moves, always, in the blind spot of all the team” pointed Garrus to a series of images in the vid.

“The infiltrator tactical cloak will never lead you so far” Shepard tapped something in her omnitool and look intensely to the images for a second.

“ There” she pointed out a shadow figure on the border of the vid “ he is not using anything, he is hunting them without any tech”.

“Spirits, the strength of a krogan battlemaster and the stealth of an asari commando, what is this Howler?” said Garrus to none in particular “ and the pelts, why pelts?, are it trophy of some sort?”.

“Miranda?” asked Shepard to the Cerberus brunette “anything you want to add about Howler now that TIM is not earing?” said Shepard reading the mind of her CEO with easiness; she could be an Ice queen most of the time but from time to time, she revealed that she was human under all that highly engineered mind and body of hers.

“Howler or Project Wolf, as he was called by Cerberus” said the woman “ saved my life and Jacobs once; he doesn’t know it because he was busy fighting in another site of the hangar, but when your body was delivered to us, the Collectors stormed the place” informed Shepard, who listened very attentively now to the memory recall of the woman; so did Garrus, the death of the commander was a very deep wound in his soul.

“There was another shuttle on the hangar, that day” explained the situation the woman to the other two “ one of a kind I have never seen before, fives times the size of a Kodiak and armed with two gardian cannons along a dozen of autocannons”.

Shepard and Garrus salivated inside their minds, they would love to put their hands in a shuttle like that.

“All the ship was deep dark gray, with the word Fenris painted along the right side in bright red, along a red wolf head howling in front of a white moon” said Miranda who could still remember the impressive shuttle “I tried to pick up some quick scanners with my omnitool but all the ship was guarded against scans and cyberwar, with a codification I have only seen in the Citadel; when the Collectors appeared and start shooting; the side door of the ship opened and along the ship cannons, someone inside the ship return the fire, destroying completely the Collectors so we could leave with you body”.

Miranda sighed against; this mission against the Collectors was hitting her hard with situations that send most of the protocols off the window, adding pieces of her past into the mess was only the ice of the cake, mentally resumed to herself.

“The _Fenris_ is a shuttle registered today in the dock next to us, under the name of the Howler” explained Miranda so they could understand how she had followed the trail into who was the mysterious Savior that allowed, at the end; save and resurrect Sheppard.

“Spirits...you owe a big one to this Howler Shepard” muttered Garrus who was thinking about having a stroll into the deck next to the Normandy and have a look at the shuttle; it could be informative.

“Hell yeah, I owe him” shook her head Shepard; she has no idea who this Howler was but this was just getting better and better by the minute.

The cab lowered his speed and put them into the entrance to the VIP lounge of the arena; the place was protected by a dozen of turrets and a bunch of private security enforcers of the arena; former gladiators that found the guard job much better than being butchered in the floor; armed with all sorts of guns and armors.

A salarian with deep scars in his face and the characteristic sentinel holo armor get close to them and ask for invitations; Miranda light her Omnitool and show the salarian an invitation signed by Aria herself; the salarian widened his eyes for a second but them he proced to double check it; he was a professional after all.

Satisfied with the checking, he showed them the way to the private lounge of Aria.

Shepard noticed that no one of the guards made the minor attempt to take their weapons, even if she knew it was clear that all three of them were loaded and ready for the mission; speaking of which, Miranda will wear an armor the next deployment, her catsuit was cute and distracting and whatever you want but it would do shit against a lost bullet, when your biotic and kinetic shields were off. Cerberus had provided her and her team with all kind of toys and armors, so she was going to use it; she didn’t want to lose her second in command just because she was too much confident on her own engineered perfection and biotic powers.

The guards form a perimeter around them; a protective perimeter noticed all three of them; pointing their guns opposite of them and moving along them to guide them into the private lounge of Aria inside the coliseum. It will both prevent them from being attacked and to them to wander around the lounges butting into anyone business; still, all the team was impress about the professionalism of these gladiators turned into guards, of the same arena on where they fight and bleed before.

The place was quite sober for a private lounge noticed Shepard the absence of the classic paintings, murals and carpet over the walls, like it happened in a lot of luxury places she had been during the victory celebrations in the Citadel after Sarens defeat. The walls were metallic and reinforced, more accordingly to a bunker than a luxury balcony but this was Omega and the paranoid was not a mental illness here but a survival instinct, specially if the reports about the living in the district were accurate and they were almost by his own rules of who had the bigger gun rules; of course Aria always had the bigger guns. The balcony of Aria was on the furthest part of the hallway; going up a set of stairs that put you on a very disadvantage position, if you pretend to climb the stairs and kill the Pirate queen of Omega, all guards could rain fire over the position from all angles and still being partially under cover, in case of numerical massive numbers and retaliation from the attackers.

It was a bottleneck for attackers and a shooting gallery for the defenders, not to mention she was quite sure there will be dozens of measures to prevent Aria for being trap and hidden automatic defenses on the wall or in the ceiling of the balcony. The hallway had a dozen of different entrance rooms to a dozen different balconies, to other vips present for the fight tonight; apart from Aria perhaps leaders of mercs bands and some lucky crime lords with some credits to spare; Shepard would love to put a nuke in this blasted station and send it flying to outer space in a ball of fire and glory.

Unfortunately she only had a missile launcher and although, she would love to use it, she has to wait for the right moment to blow this place to pieces; now she had a mission and a very interesting person to meet.

Miranda, Garrus and her, climbed the stairs and pass through a door watched by one of the biggest krogan she had ever seen; almost as big as Wrex; into a luxurious hall with red carpet and a long and comfortable sofa of seven meters, facing the arena from higher altitude; around the reinforced glass of the balcony there were displayed several holo screens with data, bets in progress and all kind of images and notices from a dozen of broadcasting channels in Council space.

A trio or guards where standing along the room, protecting the unique Leader of all this space piece of junk from any possible harm, not to mention, Shepard detected two turrets hidden in the top of the room, ready to be deployed and rain death over anyone stupid enough to seek for a fight inside this room.

Aria was royally sat on her private box, one with a wide window that allow her to see with perfect clarity all the arena; the crystal were military grade, the ones that you saw in the cabins of the plane fighters or the windows of the space Dreadnoughts. The Pirate queen was lazily drinking a wine glass and boringly watching the preparations for the incoming battle of the Howler, the undisputed champion of the arena and she was actually hoping to see the arrogant bastard face hit the floor.

 

Omega/Fighters entrance/2185

 

The pair of salarians in charge of controlling the opponent of the Howler, pushed the button for the release of a dozen of combat drugs in the system of the fighter and they were rewarded with a thunderous roar that reverberated inside the metal reinforced cage that contained the fighter. One of them smiled wickedly and tapped some last minute commands on the surface of the instrument; moving the cage of the fighter to the fighters tunnel.

When the door of the cage would open to launch the fighter into the cage, this little bad boy is going to charge like a battering ram into the Howler and smash him till a pulp; the owners asked for a worthy show, a worthy spectacle that could bring the vid channels into Omega and put the Arena and they bank accounts into the banks of the citadel.

The cage made a hiss when the border of the fighter tunnels connected with the door of the portable cage; the resident of the cage was still roaring in anger and blood thirst; they had put enough combat drugs in his system to collapse a krogan but this nasty piece of work was a unique piece of work that the batarian slavers had found by chance in a remote planet and managed to subdue him before he killed all the batarians with his claws. The other salarian checked the console at the side of the cage and nodded to his boss, all conditions were green, the monster inside the cage was more than ready to be throw at the ring and tear apart limb from limb anything in his path.

There was still the advertisements of the VI about how the mix of the drugs they have given to him could cause a collapse, if they aren’t cleaned for his system, but that was not important; they have been paid for giving the fighter an edge over his opponent. Both Salarian were pretty much sure, the cocktail they have served to the thing inside the cage, was three steps ahead of overkill but the payment for the delivery and preparation of the combat drug shut all their concerns; they have been generously paid for the work and that was all that matters now.

The boss pulled a lever and the hiss of the door opening just marks the beginning of the massacre.

Shepard frowned when a red bip called her attention, before she turned her face to the crystal and saw what was happening in the cage of the fight; she could saw another nearby private balconies look to the combat with anticipation.

“Sons of a bitch!!” she shouted when she saw the massive form of a Yagh running like all the devils of hell were after him and charging right into the cage, before jumping with the help of his powerful legs and charge his opponent.

She was about the shoot the crystal and try to save the Howler before it was too late but what happened next make everyone jaws in the room, meet a new friend in the floor of the balcony.

 

Omega/Fighters cage/2185

 

He was wounded, he was angered, he wanted blood and the liberation of the rage that consumed his body like a fire, all his muscles were tensed and pain; he wanted to destroy something, he wanted to make something suffer the same pain he was sensing, he wanted fresh ripped flesh to quell his hunger and thirst of blood.

The two meters and half form of and adult yahg, entered the cage inside the arena and his opponent just simply look at it without change in his facial expression; not he could see it under the wolf shaped helmet he had covering his face.

The yagh charge into a rushing slam roaring his anger to the arena and the crow cheered the monster; now this could be interesting, was the common thought when they saw the yagh enter the cage as it was the only thing that could stand face to the Howler. The Howler charged too and both collide each other in the middle of the arena like a pair of trains in the same trail; they did a similar sound too. The slam of both bodies colliding to each other, silenced the crow as the impact resonated like a damn bell and caused several cracks to appear under their feet.

Both monsters struggled for a little, in a display of superhuman physical strength, but at the end, the Howler pick his opponent arm and throw him over his shoulder into the arena wall, smashing the ton body of the yagh against the crystal, much to the surprise and astonishment of the crow who start to cheer both fighters in a mix of shock and adrenaline. The Howler just changed his posture to a more relaxed stance both hands down and a bit crouched; it made him look like some kind of predator, and how he circled the yahg slowly only accentuated the sensation.

The yagh shook his head and stand up again, he charged again but this time he kept launching claw after claw to the Howler, who stood his ground like a professional boxer and dodged or block all fierce attacks of the yagh waiting for an opening or a stop in the barrage to begun his own counterattack, but the yahg was beyond tiredness or strategies, he pushed forward and managed to slam the Howler to the ground when the yagh raised both hands and slammed a twin fist over the crossed arms of the Howler making him kneel by pure brute force.

He kicked the chest of the Howler and send him flying backwards into the ground, but no sound scape from his helmet as the yagh clawed his chest reaping apart his light armor and achieve first blood of the fight. The three fingered hand of the yahg ended in a long and hard nails that could cut through light material hardsuits like there were made of paper; although the muscles and bones of the Howler are much more resilient than that; he has cut skin and the flesh but their bones weren’t pierced by the claws.

The Howler blocked the second claw and kicked the knee of the yahg, almost crushing it in a single kick and making the yagh roar and kneel, just in time to receive an uppercut that send his body flying backwards several feet and put him down for a moment after his brain tried to recover from the shattering blow. The low right jaw of the yagh was devastated and bleeding and the Howler has lost his chest armor plate; showing a powerful human musculature; but his wounds had already a black dry scab of blood that sealing the wounds efficiently.

The Howler flexed his right hand a little, as if he was surprised by the hardness of the yahg but apart from that, he show no other discomfort after being beaten by a ton berseker monster with enough strength to rip a krogan in half. The yahg was still high in his drugged state of mind and simply roared; despite half his jaw was just hanging lifelessly; and jump back to the combat, clawing and kicking with unholy fury trying to disembowel the Howler who simply waited for his chance; still having learned from the previous experience; he didn’t hold his counters and start punching back the yahg.

Thanks to the natural armor of the yahg body and his drugged state, he just shrugged the punches, not even noticing them anymore and much more focused on reaching the body of the Howler with his claw; he managed to cut some more pieces of the armor of the man and make him bleed a little more but they were just scratches. The crow was exhilarated, this was a fight between monsters and the Howler was standing his ground against a fucking yahg or whatever the hell was that thing; as the yahg are still a secret for most of the galaxy, considering the Council did banner any ship to enter into yahg territory.

The fight has been going back and forth for five minutes and all presents were enjoying the show of strength and martial prowess of the Howler along the breathtaking fury of the alien rival of the champion of the arena.

The Howler suddenly side step, letting the yahg lost foot and stumble forward only to receive a straight punch, right into the middle of the face, that send his head backwards; still, the second he need to recover position was all the Howler need to spin an ax kick and bury his right feet till the ankle in the side of the yahg, deforming the skin like armor and hard flesh of the alien. The kick made the yagh fell like a cut down tree, as half his internal organs has been damaged by the brutal kick; still he knelled instead of falling and shoot his left claw in a wide arc; the Howler caught the claw by the wrist and jumped high only to crush the elbow of the yahg, twisting his left arm in a sick angle with a sickening crunch that made the crow frenzy.

Still trapping the broken and twisted arm of the yahg in his hand, Howler punched one, two, three times the already messed face of the yahg but in an astonishing display of strength and pain threshold, the yahg raised and toss the Howler several meters' trough the air, smashing him against the reinforced walls of the cage and fell to the ground; achieving a grunt from the insides of the wolf helmet.

The yahg roared; yet it sounded strangled by blood and saliva; with his arm hanging limp to his sides, the roar just echoed trough the crow who roared back to the yahg, angering him more, and start to trash the floor and the walls of the cage looking for his victim. The Howler; who had recovered almost at the moment of touching the ground and just dusted himself like it was nothing; checked his armor state and for the eye candy of the female crowd he rip the gray hardsuit, revealing a body too much muscular even for the most modified athletes and military personal;it was directly no human.

So big, so strong yet perfectly proportionate; that means he grew naturally to reach the eight feet and half height naturally and that was fucking impossible, unless he was the first krogan-human hybrid in history, but his human features were clear to anyone to see. Back in Arias balcony; Aria has to admit that she was as stunned as the rest of the presents, by the goddess!, the Howler was actually standing his ground against a Yagh bare handily, this was impossible, not even Krogans are capable of such thing and here they are, seeing it with her own eyes. And taking good notice of the deliciously strong body of the Howler; she has never seen him enjoy in any pleasures, not in the Afterlife, not in any brothel in Omega, nothing. In fact she once suspected the man was homosexual or had very odd tastes but at the end it resulted that he did have a female quarian bitch in the ship bays, well, Aria didn’t expect that, perhaps he liked to be the big spoon in the bed and considering his size, you must be quite the amazon to match him.The Queen has to admit, that he was a worthy king, strong, unruly and capable of facing anything the universe throw at him, it was truly a pity that he was not open to negotiations, they could have been something great.

“Iron wolf!” shouted Garrus and Sheppard at the same time, surprising Miranda greatly as they seem to already knew the Howler.

“Spirits, that is Iron wolf?” muttered Garrus getting closer to the window and focusing his blue targeting sensor into the fighter “that’s his helmet, that for sure...”.

“I take you had meet already” said Aria still as composed as ever.

“I don’t know who this Iron wolf is” said Miranda confused for the sudden reaction of the rest of the ground team “ I always know him as Howler or Project predator”.

“Tor Iron wolf, Rune priest of the 13th company of the Sixth legion of Astartes of the Imperium of Mankind” recited Shepard and stiffened; how the hell was she capable of remembering that with such precision after almost two years and half?, not to mention she was death for fuck sakes.

“What was that?” ask Miranda who hadn’t understood half of it, astartes?, Imperium?.

“How curious” raise an eyebrow Aria “ it looks like you had mind melt with him, but you are not an Asari so I find it most intriguing”.

“What, in the name of sanity, are you speaking about Queen bitch?!” shouted Shepard who hated to be in the dark but before Aria could send her own comeback to the insult of Shepard, the astonished and loud shout of Garrus call their attention back to the match.

“Spirits!!!!” shouted the Turian and Shepard turned to see what has shocked Garrus so much.

Once again, her jaw meet her new best friend, the floor; when she saw how Iron wolf, Aka Howler finished the yahg in the cage.

Tor was very tired of this game, he has been contacted by the owners of the arena to perform one last fight for them; they wanted to jump into the vid corporations and Tor wanted one last challenge; he was lost and confused, this galaxy has nothing for him, she was a wolf without pack, a warrior without war. The yagh has been a worthy challenge but his helmet autosenses soon pick up the chemical imbalance in the smell of the xenos; looks like the owners of the Arena know him well enough to put the challenge one step up of what they promised. He flexed his fingers a little and poured a bit of psy power into his body; strengthening the body more into what could be called almost living steel; when he finished, he waited for the Yagh to attack, it was almost like fighting an ork high on combat drugs.

This universe was crazy but...

It wasn’t his universe, not by far; he even tried to seek Fenris; see if the planet was out there but the stellar maps had no sense for him; they are completely different, he had to learn astronavigation from scratch to be able to pilot the _Fenris_ into a mass relay and don’t stomp the ship into those swirling circles of the relays. These fights were just like the good old days were and he enjoyed every minute of it; not to mention it allowed him to learn the strengths and weaknesses of all the races of the universe, or at last the ones with a ground military presence.

He was still waiting to see a volus raise a weapon.

Tor growled and focused on the yahg, it was time to put and end to this; this was no longer a fight, nor a battle, this was a delayed execution. Tor took the initiative this time and when the yahg see him coming, he tried to slap him with his limp arm but he dived under the attack and connect a punch to the gut of the yahg; usually that would be ineffective as the gut was one of the most armored places of the Yahg but the punch was made with his metallic arm and with the extra psy power on it, it would be enough to dent the armor of a Mako. The yahg lost his breath and bent forward only to see how Tor grab him by the limp arm and smash him violently against the transparent wall of the cage, with enough force to crack the material in tiny cracks, that appeared as the yahg was slammed against the surface like a mosquito to a windscreen.

Blood and saliva splattered from the messed face of the yahg into the boundary wall of the cage but the punishment hasn’t ended yet, a devastating left punch hit his spine breaking the primal vertebrae and paralyzing the yahg for a short time, as the rest of his hardened body and nervous system reboots to a secondary organ that allow him to operate with normality until the bones healed naturally. Paralyzed, he could only snarl and growl when Tor buried his fingers into his back and rose him over his head.The crowd was ecstatic; the Howler has done it again!, he has beat a damn beast, a damn monster as powerful as him and he has done in less than ten minutes but what happened next silence all the crowd except the most violent of them and the vorcha and krogan that smashed their weapons in respect for a job well done.

Tor roared and tensing his muscles to the maximum he kept tearing flesh, muscles and nerves of the Yagh over his head, the blood run freely on his arms, helmet and naked torso as he kept the tearing. Both roars and the sickening sound of the flesh being teared apart, filled the deafening silence of the arena as Tor keep bathing himself in the ripped flesh of his enemy, until with a final push and roar send both parts of the teared yahg flying in opposites directions of the arena.

Bathed in blood and gore; Tor raised his head to the ceiling of the cage and howled.

The sound make the cage reverberate and resonate with the loud stomping of the weapons of the Blood pack, who appreciated a good work when they see one; as the howl ended, Tor glare one last time for the camera to allow them to see his soaked in gore wolf helmet and walked to the half of the corpse that had the arms. He crouched and tear one single finger of the hands of the butchered yahg in the floor; it would be a good trophy for the _Fenris,_ the head was so mess up that was useless as trophy.

“As powerful as always” said Aria in the stunned silence inside of the private box, there was a hidden tone of lust inside her voice. That was what she called a real man, pity he hated her guts.

None of the ground team could believe what have they seen in front of their faces.

“Spirits...” muttered Garrus.

Shepard snapped out of her shock and fixated his stare in the retreating back of Iron wolf, no way in hell is she letting him go now, she had a thousand of questions to ask but before that she had another thing to deal with.

“EDI” called Shepard to the AI “ tell me you have all of this recorded, this is the proof the Howling wolf was not a myth or a forgery” ordered Shepard “ Garrus, Miranda we have to reach him before he disappears again and you...” Shepard turned to Aria who just lay on her couch and raise her wine glass.

“Howler and I are not in friendly terms” said Aria telling only the truth “but I am as interested as you in get him out of my station” smiled the Asari “ and if you could recruit him, more for the better as you are going to send him into a suicide mission, win/win for me Shepard, good hunt” lazily dismissed her Shepard as she waved her hand in a good bye manner.

Fuming with rage and do not wanting to fight Aria in her own turf, Shepard stomped her way out of the box, looking for the astartes.

 

Omega/Arena beast cages/2185

 

The beast cages of the arena were more numerous that one could think; the daily violence of the arena make the necessity of replacement for the beast and gladiators deaths, quite a necessity for the business to keep entertaining his guest. A varren pack hunting the latest and deadliest thing any batarian slave ring could find out there in the Terminus systems; Shoot the Pyjak day, on where the arena in fill with pyjak and all the people who pay could arm themselves with missile launchers and blow the hell up of those vermins; gladiators against insect like abominations of acidic blood and so goes the list on.

The arena proud themselves of not being monotonous; it was a pity that his best fighter was no more but he indeed went with a bang, ripping a yahg in two with his bare hands; that will do a wonderful vid presentation for any vid company, searching for new entertainment out of the boring legal sport matches that are common in the vid companies. How could one compare a knife fight between a turian and a vorcha, with a gloved boxing match between two humans with lesser modifications?.

All the containment section, most know as the zoo, was separated in two clear parts.

A large floor, with all the cages and different containers for the different kind of beast, and an elevated platform and spreading walkways from it, so the different keepers could access easily to any beast for their maintenance and safety; the only way out was the elevator platforms that were connected to the edge of the walkways to the different floor cages. The only way for a beast to scape, was to wait for a keeper to go down, kill him and use his omnitool to call the platform back.

A very difficult thing to do for a supposedly mindless animal, however, the yahg was supposedly a beast too and no one dared to get close to the thing until it was sedated to hell and even so, all the keepers keep the omnitool out of the hands of the alien. Just in case, those things were more clever than they want to look like; anyone was convinced of the almost non-intelligence of the vorcha and they could scavenge pretty well and use omnitool like anyone else.

The animals did look restless as the varren and klixen were agitated on their cages; they could smell the blood all over the body of Tor, who was walking at a leisure pace over the walkways of the room, without any worry on the world beyond his usual tribulations. The fight has been interesting and disappointing at the same time, the yahg thing was a worthy challenge but he was so high in combat drugs, that he lost the most important quality of a warrior. His mind was nothing but a mist of pain, hurt and blood thirst along a red rage that he has only seen before in champions of khorne; useful some times, but for this occasion was totally counterproductive; he could rely on his animal instincts as he was in a state of frenzy that he could only perform savage attacks in order to kill and rip him apart until the blood mist of his brain subdued.

For the chemical smell he gave and the knowledge of Tor about combat drugs, it was more than probably that it was an overdose and his system will collapse long after the fight end; the yahg body is quite sturdy and resilient; not like a true astartes but he could pose quite the challenge for the less experienced of his brothers back home.

He was not in real hurry so he stoped over the cage of the klixen and look down with the senses of his helmet pointing the xenos and suggesting attacks and potential weakness of the insect like race; he has found quite the number of these things ;along the bug called the harvester; all over his travels in this universe who had nothing to offer him. Several doors opened in the sides of the room and Tor let the autosenses of the helmet analyze and determine threat; it was most probably a job offering and considering the humor he was in, he would accept even the darker ones. He need a motive lo live, he was a war machine, an astartes, peace was the worst battle he ever had to fight.

Blue suns,a dozen, three mechs, sentinel leader, turian, one heavy armor troop.

The wolf helmet put on his vision field, the analysis of every soldier and possible threat in the walkways.

Blood pack, eight, two krogan, two flamethrowers.

Eclipse. Five, all asari, all biotics, movement analysis suggest commandos.

The dozen possible tactics appeared in a column at the edge of his vision but he was kind of surprised as the merc just ignore him and start to take cover all around the walkways and platforms of the cages. That itself was kind of odd, as he knows that the arena had very little tolerance against the ones that could do harm against the installations or the clients; the rule of no weapons inside the place except for the guards and the gladiators was stone set and this was an ambush if he ever saw one, so the mercs must have asked permission to the arena owners for this display.

Knowing the greed of the arena owners, the payment must have been quite substantial; they risk to lost the thrust of his clients if they get ear of how they have permitted a hunt inside the very own arena, not to mention how many of their beasts could end death by lost bullets or mercs thrown into the beast pits. But it has nothing to do with him; this was no longer his place; this was his last combat and how a bunch of aliens wanted to kill another bunch of aliens or human criminals was no longer his concern. Not even before this nightmare started had he raise and eyebrow for a crime lord or slaver being shoot to death; but the xeno part did shackle a part of him.

When did he become so lenient with the xenos?; since he was no more part of nothing; no imperium, no war, no battle brothers, he will forever be loyal to Russ and the Allfather but in this galaxy there was no more. Without a purpose an astartes was nothing, a warrior without a purpose is not warrior at all. He had killed hundreds of xeno scum who predated in humanity in these jokes, that this universe call battles; the same humanity that coexist with the xenos and even copulate with them; the most extreme case were the asari blue xenos.

Tor remembered the creed of the space marines what should resume his core and function.

_The enemies of the Emperor fear many things_

_They fear discovery, defeat, despair and death_

_Yet there is one thing they fear above all others_

_They fear the wrath of the Space marines!_

 

Words that he has chanted more than once during the battle along his brothers of the _Aett,_ the brothers of the 13 th company; as his Skald he should remember without fault the battle litanies that was the core of the souls of the wolves.

Now, the wolf was alone and without purpose.

Tor turn his back to the ambushing merc at let them kill whoever was their objective; did that asari wink at him?; sighing and the helmet make it look like the wolf was groaning, Tor left the place; this universe has only given him headaches, what more would it give him?.

There is one single line of the Wolf chants, that his brothers Wolf priests taught him, that was haunting him since his discovery of he was completely alone in this accursed galaxy.

_Without the All-father, there is nothing..._

_And we would have no purpose._

The mercs; except from a lust filled glance of one of the asari; did nothing to bother the leaving fighter, he has nothing to do with them, and less are people involved in this vengeance the better. At first sight, all the mercs are playing a risky gambit; the owners of the arena know nothing of this and their guns had been smuggled from one of the guard post and cabins, after the Eclipse did her job with the patrolling guards and a Blue sun batarian hack the lock on the armory. This was retribution; Shepard and his turian pet will pay for the death of the leaders of the mercs bands; do not confound it with respect, this was pure and simply business, as they can not allow to anyone walked away after make such a number on their numbers and reputation.

Four people killing a hundred merc and all three leaders on Omega?, do you have an idea of what bitch slap was that to the reputation of the three bands?; matter not, the responsible were the infamous Commander Shepard and the not less infamous Archangel. A band who could not make the offenders pay in blood?, that would mean lesser contracts, as the clients looks for the meanest, toughest, deadliest motherfuckers in the galaxy and allowing such a thing to happen even in Omega will be very bad for business. All of them check their weapons; they were all from the arena guards and by so most of them are not comfortable with them; all merc worth his salt will know his gear inside out but this was guards weapons; light caliber mostly, with few mods and upgrades as they didn’t really need it to kill supposedly unharmed objectives.

The asari took point as almost all of them were full front biotics as the two krogan of the Blood pack but he had to control the stupid vorcha, before they simply burn all the place to hell with their flamethrowers, the rest of the mercs simply took cover and pointed to the door. As soon as the gates opened there will make rain hell into the hallway, killing Shepard and his turian pet in one go.

Their victim on the other hand was looking with a raise eyebrow to Miranda who has picked her wrist and was seeing something on her omnitool.

“Iron wolf is escaping you know?” asked Shepard in a neuter tone hiding the anger she was feeling at the moment; Garrus was the only one who did recognize that tone and make a step back putting a hand on his blue scope like he was adjusting it.

“Scared he would react violently?” asked Miranda with a smug that she knows all the crew hate; it was her patented “The Ice queen is going to chew your ass” smirk.

“What is with you?” sighed Shepard who wanted to believe all this shit was just a bad dream and she would be awake in her quarters in the Normandy and never hear again of crazy gigantic wolf man traveler.

“There is an ambush behind that door” pointed Miranda to her omnitool “ I hacked the cameras and they had a little army waiting for us”.

Garrus picked up his mantis and extended the gun, loading his personal armor-piercing mod; a deadly combination that Shepard loves to watch; there was few better shooters out there than Garrus and Shepard was always happy to have him covering her back.

“I will guess and say that they want to grind an ax with us for the little show we put when you recruited me Shepard” commented Garrus waiting for the show to begin.

“Garrus, Miranda to the sides of the door” ordered Shepard “ we open and let them believe they got us, then we throw flash grenades and I barge in, followed by Miranda; Garrus cover fire, put down whatever sniper or heavy weapon they could have brought with them”.

Shepard took her Mattlock and put the incendiary mod on; close and personal and being mercs made of flesh and bones instead of geth armadas, the incendiary rounds were the best choice; she was still waiting for the Shredder ammo mod that she has requested, along the last supplies request of the Normandy.

If she was going to fight the Collectors, she was going to do it with style.

She took cover on a side of the door along Garrus and prepared for the combat; she couldn’t help it and a wide grin appeared on her face making her even more beautiful than usual; Garrus noticed her red head human friend smile and grinned internally. When Shepard was in that mood, she was beyond beautiful; a deadly and red haired beauty that could tear you apart with her mind but beautiful, nonetheless. For the moment he will make sure she would survive and beam like only she knew for another time and all the times she wanted, if the Turian could have a say on the matter; the universe has already taken her once and send her on another impossible mission; this time she will survive, Garrus will do whatever is need; he own her that much at last.

The doors opened and the stampede of the guns raining fire all over the open spot, deafened all of them; even a pair of grenades went into the door and exploded in the opposite wall; much to the surprise of Shepard who look astonished to the dented wall; they really want their pound of flesh.

“You know how to make grudges, eh Vakarian?” laughed the woman by the communicator so only him could hear the conversation.

“I am a natural charmer” replied Garrus with a soft chuckle and signaled her to be ready, picking up one of his flash grenades.

“Go” whispered Garrus and send the grenade in along the rest.

For a second all the room went in a bang of light and high pitch noise that sent the beasts into a frenzy as they sensed pain for the sudden violent noise but for the mercs was much worse; they didn’t feel any pain but they were deafened and blinded for a precious seconds. The team barged in, engaging the stunned and confused mercs before any of them could react; Shepard fly through the space separating him from her enemies in an explosion of biotic energy, flattening the first poor lass in her way like it was a pancake. The asari felt all her inner organs became gelatine, when the brutal impact of the Charge overloaded her barriers and armor; her lifeless corpse went flying into the cages of the animals down them, who attacked the corpse enraged for the previous shock of light and sound.

Taking advantage of the augmented strength the biotic burst produce in the user, she wielded her Mattlock in one hand and her carnifex in the other and shoot at point blank range to the surrounding enemies, piercing armor, barriers and flesh by burning brute force.

Garrus took aim and shoot his mantis; the head of the Blue suns grenade launcher exploded; popping out the thermal clip, he reloaded and smiled a little before managing to achieve a one million shoot into the fuel canisters on the back of one of the vorchas, making the canister explode and incinerate him; the explosion covered the other flamethrower user and a nearby krogan, in the burning combustible of the weapon, making them scream as their regeneration couldn’t work faster that the chemical mix devouring their flesh.

Miranda sent the widest biotic wave she could muster into the bulk of the forces; making them took cover, but slamming against the opposite wall, with a loud and sick crunch, a trio of too slow Blue suns; she didn’t slow her pace and keep firing her shuriken sub-machine gun to any mercenary at sight without losing focus on her barriers. They keep punishing the enemy lines, as they had caught them by surprise, this was supposedly an ambush and they were tearing them apart like their were nothing but dummies; soon the numeric difference start to change the tides and force them into cover.

Garrus pass more time covering than shooting and Miranda couldn’t even move from her position as the rain of bullets would have ripped her to pieces, still, Shepard managed to Charge against another batch of enemies and with a very lucky grenade, gave the rest of her team, the respite they need to turn the tides again. Not to late after that crazy stunt from the commander, the mercs were devastated and the few survivors just run to the nearest exit.

The last enemy was a crawling mech that grab the ankle of Shepard and she just raise an eyebrow and pierce the head of the mech with a biotic punch, still the world went white for her as the damn thing just explode in her face, worse than a grenade at point blank. The explosion was bigger than a mech of this size; perhaps they were bobby trapped and make a bang when they are destroyed; it would be something Shepard would have done in case of having a mech under her command.

Still, she was not much of a fan of those metallic expendable soldiers, call her old fashion but she preferred flesh and blood over mechs; not she didn’t appreciate for what is worth the power a Yimmir brings into battle or how lethal the geth truly are; after fighting them during the hunt of Saren she truly knew how dangerous those troopers could be.

The explosion send her into the varren cage; Garrus and Miranda rushed quickly into the room trying to reach Shepard before the varren get on her like piranhas; despite all her powers she was still made of flesh and blood and after eating that explosion at point zero, no matter how though you are, you are ready for the count.

Shepard rebounded on the floor of the cage, thank god, her armor was more than capable of absorbing the hit and don’t cause her more harm but she felt the world spinning after the explosion.

She heard the roar of the varren pack in front of her and her mind freeze; she quickly looked out for her Mattlock but it was in the walkway over her and by so completely out of her reach; at last in time to defend herself from the pack of reptile sabre fangs in front of her. Her head was still dizzying from the sudden explosion, she tried to focus her mind again into her biotics and slam the beast but then before she could summon her biotics; a towering figure landed crouched between her and the varrens.

Tor was knelt in front of the varren, facing them with one of his claw like hands buried in the floor of the cage, the time paused for a second as the varren roar and snarl at the new appearance on their domain, the scarred alpha of the pack took point and crouched a little, preparing the muscles for a leap with open jaws to took down the intruders.

But Tor roared.

The roar shackled all the room and shut the roars and snarls of the varren pack, deafening them and making the ground of the cage tremble; the walls shatter a little for the brutal sonic shock wave that pass over the crouched heads of the varrens, the roar went down slowly as the varrens down their heads in acceptance.

There was a new alpha among them.


	3. Wulfen effect 3

Normandy SR-2/ In route to Citadel space/ Briefing room

  


“So...let me get this straight” massaged her head Shepard looking at the eight feet giant with a wolf helmet, standing in front of her, at the other side of the room; Jacob and Miranda were as lost as her when he appeared in the ship and asked for refuge, after the shit he has pull out in the varren cage.

Now he was clean and wearing what it could be his “out duty clothes”, Iron wolf just wore a dark gray set of pants, jacket and gloves with a black wolf head stitched over his heart...and his damn helmet for fucks sake.

“We are recruiting a team for taking down the Collectors” explained Shepard “I know it looks like I am working for Cerberus, but make no mistake I am calling the shots here; Cerberus is paying the bills, this time we have a common enemy on the Collectors, they are kidnapping entire human colonies in the terminus systems for reasons unknown”.

“The Normandy will travel to the Omega-4 relay, into what we think is the Collectors home world and wipe the menace before it went to far” continued Miranda still incapable of wrapping her head about what was standing the in room.

This was a little awkward, Shepard knew who was the Howler; after all he saved her hide in two occasions already and he was some kind of another dimension super soldier of some sorts.

“So, how have you been Iron wolf?, we haven't seen each other for a while, not since you saved all my team against Saren back in the Citadel” started Shepard the conversation with a common ground and Jacob tensed a little when she mentioned that fact.

It was a buried secret among the military and the council records. The real vid of the howling wolf that appeared and destroyed a geth platoon like they were toys, in the official version it was just the use of the sonic prototype weapon by the geth that went south and exploded in their faces. The helmet with the aspect of a snarling wolf, rose his head and look at Shepard intensely for a second but he simply shrugged and said nothing more.

“I take you want some time to ponder the offer” raise an eyebrow Shepard a bit taken aback for the silence of the astartes, the first time she meet he was more talkative; granted she didn’t understand a word but he did at last, try to talk to her.

Iron wolf nodded and simply walk away of the briefing room.

“Ok...that was awkward and somehow, I am convinced it went well” said Shepard when the door closed.

“Your call ma´m” cross his arms Jacob “I´ll be honest with you, dimensional travels?, aliens?, human super soldiers?, this is way beyond my pay grade commander” smiled Jacob warily and Shepard huffed.

“ _Yeah, thank you for remind me that if he went ballistic over our asses it will be my fault”_ though Shepard with a frown and a sigh.

“But I saw the video log of the mission, he could be one hell of an ace up or sleeve, Iron wolf was it?, beating that thing bare handed?, I needed to triple check the vid before accepting it was real” analyzed Jacob the proofs.

“Yes, I was there and I barely believed it neither” nodded Shepard “ I know why TIM was so scared of Iron wolf now”.

“TIM is going to love this” chuckled Jacob “ I´ll be in the armory if you need me commander”.

“Ok Jacob and by the way, the Mattlock?, worked like a charm” smiled the woman “it's all I needed and more, any possibilities of upgrading the clip storage?”.

“I will look for it Commander” smiled Jacob leaving Shepard alone in the briefing room; EDI will be sorting already the reports and vids of the mission into a package to the Delusional man; love the new nick name; so it was more than probably that the bastard would call him soon. Usually she would move to the bar and try to drown her sorrows in the butt of a glass of whatever poison she had at hand but now that Cerberus has upgraded her, her modifications made almost impossible to her to fell under the table, unless she drank a barrel of rynkol.

Oh for fucks sake. Mom!, how she could forget about that?.

She got out of the briefing room, she saw a very excited Kelly waiting patiently near the elevator, as soon as the AI of the ship tell her all the results of the mission, she squealed little a little girl and moved to interview the recruit, she was excited to meet the Iron wolf. And the part of being from another universe; that makes it even the better!.

Shepard chuckled at the image of the woman with her data slate in her arms and a dreamy smile in her lips; the yeoman was the unofficial physiologist of the ship and her bubbly personality and incapability of hate anyone, has made her quite popular.

Pity she was the worst spy of the history, as she confessed Shepard not long after being in the Normandy, that among their responsibilities, was the duty of sending periodical reports of the crew and the mission to TIM, reports that were more personal and close than the mission reports Miranda and EDI send to TIM. She had to chat and discover what does motive and worries the squad; not to mention any possible weakness Cerberus could exploit.

Kelly didn’t want that; she didn’t want to be a Judas for the crew that was saving human lives out there, and because of that, her reports were a little more vague than it should be, nothing compromising or too dangerous for the crew.

She was trap in a bad situation but at the same time she was more than happy to be there; where else she could have the opportunity of interview beings from another dimension?, she was eager to talk with the newcomer, hopefully it would be nice and civil, although she wasn’t so sure about the Howler; or Iron wolf as Commander and Garrus say it´s his name; he is beyond scary.

“Don’t get your hopes high Kelly” said Shepard to the girl who gasped in surprise as she is taken out of her mussing “he is hardly the talkative type, he is as tight lipped as damn stone” smiled Shepard.

“Oh, Commander” said Kelly blinking a few times “well, is always a wonderful opportunity to know more about new species and where he come from, not all days I have the chance to learn more about a completely new races and a completely new universe” smiled the woman always looking at the bright side of life.

“Don’t say I didn’t warm you” said Shepard that had a sudden inspiration and leave the elevator to the woman before going to trough the armory into the main deck and took route to the pilot cabin.

Joker and EDI were discussing as usual each other as usual; Shepard almost wished for popcorn, they look like a forty years old married couple with all the constant bickering and sarcasm being throw at each other constantly.

“Ey commander another daily raid to Omega?, you are going to dessert the place by the end of the month at this rhythm” teased Joker the commander who just smiled and snorted.

If Omega was blown out of the map she will be happy; all the place was the personal playground of Aria and she didn’t like the arrogant and ruthless Pirate queen.

“Not more than usual Joker, I will send a fruit basket to Aria as apology for cleaning a little all her messes” replied Shepard “ but I want to ask you a few questions”.

“To me, commander?” Joker raise his cap a little confused, he was the pilot not part of the ground team, he didn’t see what would want the commander from him.

“Yeah, you see the new shuttle on the hangar” signalled Shepard one of the holo screens the pilot had “ what can you tell me of that monstrosity?”.

Joker understood what Shepard wanted for him and feel a bit proud that the commander asked him instead of Mordin of any the Cerberus techs, the Commander valued loyalty but for her it works in both ways, you are loyal, she is loyal.

“I can tell you one thing commander” said Joker augmenting the image “ this is no human shuttle, is too big, too armed, too armored and it had more thrusters that it should be healthy” said the pilot pointing with his hands the different parts of the _Fenris_ in the hangar bay.

“For the few scans the AI is capable to do all over the ship surface, it is completely impervious to any scan from the outside” said Joker who was reading the reports at the same time as the commander and whose voice start to became a whisper as he was reading “and the amor of the ship is as hard as our own Silaris heavy armor and she couldn’t enter the systems of the ship, the firewalls are more numerous and tighter than the Seg-C security...Holy Shit!”.

“Ok, now I am stressed” snarl Shepard “ what do we have sleeping in the hangar?”.

“No idea commander but if you managed to found the secret behind that babe, don’t hesitate to implement it into our baby will ya?” asked Joker reading the reports of the EDI scans and scratching his head under the cap in disbelief about the previous conclusions the AI of the ship has come after the scan of the shuttle.

“You can count on it” smiled Shepard as interested as Joker, in whatever the Iron wolf has on his ship but after the awkward silence he displayed in the briefing room she was not so sure about what the astartes wanted now.

It has been two long years since her death and all of them assumed Iron wolf died during the battle of the Citadel under the collapsing corpse of the Sovereign, but now it looks like he survived and he has been hunted by Cerberus all that time; if she knew he would invite him gladly to the Normandy but now she knew there was something wrong with the astartes.

Call it female intuition but she knows there was something bugging the giant man; it was not affecting his utterly awesome capabilities of mass butchering; something that could come more than handy in her crusade against the collectors.

He was hiding?,ok, that a mussing for another time, now she had something much more important to do right now; something that has been delayed for too long and it has been one of the first thing she must have done first thing after revive.

She walked to the elevator and taking example of her quarian friend she started to grind her hands one against each other in a gesture of nervousness; she was a hardened veteran of a lot of skirmishes and wars but this was the worst thing she has done in her live. She leaned over the walls of the elevator and moved to her private quarters; one thing she has to admit form Cerberus, they do know how to do things well, this place was fucking awesome, she could lose herself in the bed and they are Egyptian cotton, the shower was a sin itself, she had room for all her models and even a god damn aquarium.

But now she walked to the private terminal and push the dreaded button of call.

The line patched trough a dozen of FTL repeaters so she could reach her destination and for a second she just wished the other side of the line to be busy but she wasn’t lucky tonight, as at the other side of the line sounded a very well know voice for her.

“Yes, who is it?” said Anna Lionel Shepard.

“Hi mom” said Shepard meekly in a whisper tone.

“You took your sweet time young lady” said a stern voice who couldn’t hide the happiness of finding her daughter alive and well.

 

Normandy SR-2/ Hangar bay /2185

  


Kasumi was sat cross legged over the massive and black hull of the _Fenris;_ feeling very, very frustrated, for the first time in all her thieving carrier she felt like there was an obstacle that she couldn’t overcome. She missed Keiji and how he was able to enter in the most complicated and encrypted systems like there were nothing but she doubted even he could have done nothing against this.

At the beginning she just wanted to see more and know more of the mysterious new member of the crew; she need to see the biggest, baddest and coolest shuttle in the universe entered through the hangar bays and she knew she had to enter into that ship.

Just to know what is inside.

Contrary to the popular believe; Kasumi wasn’t greedy at all, she didn’t do it for the money, although it was one of the greatest perks of the job; she did it for the emotion of the challenge, she did it so she could say, she was the one who actually did it.

She wanted to say: “Ey, I was the first one who break into the _Fenris_ ”.

But this thing was more locked that a nuns panties and no matter what kind of trick does she tried, the place keep denying her access to the interior; she was excited to know how could the inside be?. The Howler or Iron wolf as Shepard and Garrus called the giant was the living legend that appeared during the battle for the citadel during the Saren Arterius crisis; she knew the legend, she and Keiji stole some very interesting vids from the Citadel council archives that shows the wolf man or the Howling wolf as they called him in the blogs of the extranet, during that time, killing a geth battalion with weapons that look made from a scifi B-rated movie.

She sighed loudly and disengage the stealth cloak, perhaps she should pay a visit to Jacob, he always knew how to cheer him up. She put another algorithm inside her omnitool; she had discovered some new to do during all this boring travels; she was a thief and loved to prank and mischief around the ship, the place was so boring sometimes that she feel like screaming.

Hunting Jacob was good sport but at some time it was start to becoming directly stalking, she loved strong black men with fit bodies and gentleman personality so sue her; all could have their own fetishes.

And that added a new question, what kind of men was Iron Wolf, if he was a man at all?.

Will they be like the asari and mingle with all around the ship or they be like a krogan and huff and grunt all the time around only waiting between the bloodiest fight they could find?, she hoped for the former, new histories and faces will be more than welcome aboard.

All the people aboard was so serious for her tastes, Garrus, Shepard, Gabby and Kenneth are fun, specially the latter couple who aren’t couple, they are all but married and Kasumi loved to watch their interactions.

Shepard and the other pick her on Omega just by chance, she was delivering a very delicate; Asari statue who was ugly as hell by the way; when she helped them to clear the residential levels from that nasty plague that almost kill all the aliens inside the place. And to think, the vorcha were the hands the Collectors used to wipe out almost all alien population in the district, Kasumi hated those things, they are ugly dogs that only knows how to kill and shit all around them.

Even varren could be cute, the Vorcha were directly ugly as hell and twice twisted on their actions.

In general Kasumi had nothing against the aliens; every race has their own quirks and defects, from the asari arrogance to the salarian hyperactivity, all are equally stole-able for Kasumi and that’s was, in her odd way, a form of tolerance.

Her communicator beep and she smiled to see Jacob calling her; how sweet of him.

“Miss me already Jacob?, I haven’t stolen anything from your workbench yet” smiled Kasumi under her hood, how much she loved to play pranks with the serious man.

“No, Kasumi,I know you haven’t, yet” replied the man with humor “I am seeing you over the ship from the engineering window and I have to ask you to leave him be, I don’t want to anger the sleeping beast and much less when he is aboard a very damageable ship”.

“Spoilsport” huffed the hooded girl “then I would go to see what can I do around” waved Kasumi to the glass where Jacob was standing and disappeared from sight in a spark of electricity.

Jacob chuckled and let the thief be; she was a free spirit and the best thing one could do, is try to focus her attention on something she could be interested in, and pray she would just steal a vital part of the mission just for the hell of it. Kasumi moved over the ship and jumped from the top of the ship to the floor with agility; between her upgrades and training to be the best thief of the universe, this kind of acrobatics were a given for her.

She has break into kilometers tall buildings by simply jumping from the highest point of the place and just free fall until she hit the window of her victims flat.

These days the security was a joke in the best cases, but now she has discovered a new and beautiful toy; no, not talking about Jacob; with a security that she has never seen and full of the wonders of a new race. She wanted to steal something from Shepard too, just to say she has managed to steal something for the infamous commander Shepard but she has been perfectly clear; touch my models and I flay you with my mind, aura of biotic flames included.

In resume, Shepard was fun to be around but scary as hell when she wanted to be.

She slipped into the elevator, as a group of tech enter to perform some maintenance for the Kodiak; noticing the side glances they spared to the _Fenris;_ they get to patch the poor and abused Kodiak after the last runs in Omega; they have to use the shuttle to an emergency pick up to get Garrus after he stopped a missile with the face and the extraction from the arena along Iron wolf.

  


  


Normandy SR-2/ Inside the _Fenris_ / Hangar bay/ 2185

  


Tor took down his helmet and sighed in the darkness of his ship; the lights were always dim inside the _Fenris,_ thanks to his augmented senses he could see in the almost complete darkness like it was sunlight; leaving the helmet over the panoply that contains his armor; the one that he took to war in this universe.

He pass his flesh fingers trough the blade of _Redstorm;_ the blade hummed quietly as his psy powers reacted to the psychic conduit materials the blade was made of; there was a part of him in his sword and the blade always reacted with quiet anticipation to his touch, as usually it means violence or an incoming war.

All the shuttle was a mix between an HQ room, an armory and a trophy room with all kind of souvenirs and remembrances of the battles Tor participated in this crazy universe; from the skull of a krogan warlord to a set of Turian hunter knifes passing through the jewelry that usually covers the head of Asari matriarch and two skeleton heads of a varren and a klixen. He sat in the mattress he had on a side of the trophy room and though about what he has done in the arena and the offer Shepard has offered to him.

A war...Russ be bless, he could have a war again, warriors at his side, enemies in front of him and a glorious war that could alleviate his boredom and quell the urges of the wulfen inside of him.

But then it was _that_ always present.

His worst nightmare made flesh and the reason why he didn’t take his helmet and saluted the woman like she deserved...despite she had the same name of the fucking sons of Caliban; it looks like no matter of the universe, the lion and the wolf would be a constant.

It was yet to be seen if they will be at each other throats like the original universe or will work together this time; he didn’t care either ways, not anymore; not after he discovered what has happened to him when he reached this universe. When he made the discovery he almost blew up his own head with a single shoot of his bolter; speaking of which, the weapon was displayed along the other weapons he collected and transformed into real war weapons and not those pea launchers this universe called firearms.

The _Fenris_ was part his cage and fortress, just in case all went south and he must take drastic measures.

For two years he has been wandering aimlessly killing all enemies of the humanity he could found at the same he was hunted by the same humans they swore to protect; Emperors bones they were even worse than the fucking inquisition, at last with the latter you are sure they are loyal servants of the Emperor but this Cerberus are nothing like that; greedy, idiotic and careless.

They wanted instant power and care little of the consequences; in that regard they do look like the Inquisition he remembered; but at the same time it was not for the good of humanity in general but for Cerberus and Cerberus only, all discoveries, all prototypes are hid from the Alliance and by so taken from the rest of humanity. Still, the usual trade of favors by the Alliance with this Council races put him off.

The All-father want the humanity as the ruler of the stars but the chaos gods intervened and fucked up reality as they corrupted Horus and started the Heresy. Tor has been fighting ten thousand years inside the Eye of terror trying to hunt the Thousand sons traitors but soon it became an impossible task and the company simply widened his objectives to all chaos traitors.

And now this.

Tor stood up and entered into the bathroom of the _Fenris_ and see the image on the mirror.

A young, black haired, Tor with golden wolfish eyes and slightly pointy ears replied his stare back from the surface of the mirror. He was younger, like the day he received the _Canis Helix_ and became an astartes brother and a candidate for the Iron priest training in mars; the body was fresh, young and devoid of all the damages and scars he took on the eternal campaign of the Eye of Terror.

Fortunately, All-father be thankful; his implants were still there, his left forearm was metallic and so was all his spine and parts of his body where the implants for the servo-harness were physically needed to connect to his body. He was young again, and that was impossible. The only logic explanation; and he shuddered from the consequences; was that he used the warp to rejuvenate his body when the demon banish him from his universe, he was warp touched now and not in a good way, his body was profaned by a demon.

Too much for the proud _Vlka Fenryka,_ uh?.

What would think Russ of this mess?, probably he would smash Tor head into the table enough times to exorcise him and after that bring him a tankard of ale and kick him into battle again for being such a cry baby.

Russ always has been direct in his approach of the problems; they grew in the same tribe and he did fell honored when Russ call him to be part of his blessed astartes, to be once again part of his _Aett_ as he created the Sixth legion of astartes. He passed the next hundred years on mars learning all the secrets of the Mechanicus, but never losing his Wulfen, the legion need warriors not mumbling arcane monks hiding on their machines.

Tor became an Iron priest of the 13th company under the command of the Jarl Bulveye and took care of the war gear of his brothers since them till the day he was banished from his home by a demon and send into this nightmare.

For Russ and the All-father why he can not be back in his universe killing things without any worry in the world?, being devoured by a demon sound pleasant in comparison to this emptiness.

Tor laid on his mattress ready for catch some shut eye, he has been awake for a month straight an even if he can be like this for a year, it was not healthy for him.

The counting appeared in his eyes as the omnitool, auspex and ocular globe were connected by the sacred nanomachine infection that empowered his memory buffers and allow him to be able to store thousand of years of knowledge. He could have been awake for months but the pleasure of sleep was something he has enjoyed from this universe and the darkness was a welcome challenge against the all constant doubts that plagued his mind.

_Without the All-father, there is nothing..._

_And we would have no purpose._

When the sleep finally reclaimed him, the nightmare begun.

  


Fenris/ Vlka Fenryka western settlement/ M31.

  


Tor was sharpening an axe and covering the handle with straps of leather to prevent the weapon leave his grip when he was in combat, this raid against trolls has been one of the greatest they have had in a decade.

“ _Dammit Russ you are always the star, not a surprise all the maidens of the mead hall were all over you”_ thought Tor finishing the last touches on the ax and letting it near the rest weapons he had at his side.

He was the best blacksmith the _Aett_ have and they know it; so all warriors trust him their weapons and he didn’t disappoint; his pride as craftsman was at stake here and by so, all the reputation of the _Aett_ among the other tribes.

He once managed to forge a sword with the teeth of a sea serpent from the waters near his isles and with the rest he managed to put it into arrow heads that did cut dozens of life lines; Russ in person congratulated him for his resourcefulness. He took the sword of his brother Ogvai and start to grind the blade with care; the blade was a solid piece of metal but it was dull and have several dents on the edge not to mention an inch nick near the grip.

“Ogvai, you son of a troll, what have you been doing with your sword?, shaving that thing you call beard?!!!” howled Tor after seeing the state of the weapon

“Shut up Iron wolf” replied a muffled voice outside the forge “ that bastard head was as hard as your skull”.

“Damn you; this is why I only give you hammers” continued the exchange of protest and insults Tor “ is the only damn weapon, a troll like you could never dent”

Tor threw the sword over his head and Ogvai Ogvai entered the forge ready for a fight but when he saw his sword fly into the scrap pile he roared and punched the other man on the face. Tor was expecting that and hiding a piece of metal on his hand he returned the punch and make Ogvai move backwards a little; both had the immense honor of being the personal guard and friends of the Great wolf Leman Russ but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have their differences; they always resolve them the Fenrisian way.

“You bastard, that sword has cut hundreds of life lines!” accused Ogvai before sending another punch to Tor who blocked it.

“That thing was destroyed you fool!” Tor punched back Ogvai as he was trying to put the words on his head by the knuckles instead by saying it “now it would only serve as a toy!” shouted Tor and smashed the iron piece hide in his knuckles in the head of Ogvai who rolled his eyes and fell backwards totally unconscious.

Tor massaged his hand.

“Damn you Ogvai, your damn head is a thick as the one of a troll” muttered and put a lot of discarded weapons into a pile,

Dismounting the ones whose metal could be used and melted again and leaving the handles and grips in sorted piles so he could use them for new weapons latter, a lot of the blades ended in the melter as well as a lot of handles; the threes are quite the unique material in Fenris and most of the grips and handles are made of metals from the mountains of the Iron Isles.

He fueled the flames of the forge with air and gallons of Tuskhowlers oil; those things were a blessing for the Vlka Fenryka; hard to kill but rewarding as few things were, they provide oil, meat and his tusk and teeth were perfect for daggers and arrowheads. The flames reached the peak of the forge and Tor put the heavy cauldron with the metal pieces over the flames; soon the heat will melt the scraps and leave a good amount of metal that he could pour into the molds and transform back into weapons for the _Aett._

He let the flames roar inside the melter and turn his back to the rest of the weapon that he had to supervise before he could take a break and join the rest of the Aett in the Mead-hall for a quick drink and bite; the maidens of the clan did the best roasted tuskhowler meat he has ever eat. Pity they only have eyes for Russ; damn him for being so damn perfect, but he was Jarl for something and perhaps one day all of them will be granted the permission to start their own _Aetts._ He knew for certain that Ogvai was more than eager to put his name on the Skald sagas but for Tor the fame came when his weapons are the ones that carved history.

The warriors came and go but the weapons they carry are legates to their heirs and heiress and those weapons were made by him; a good sword could be more durable than and entire _Aett_ and he would be the one who made it.

Tossing into the cauldron a few more disastrous pieces, Tor sighed and took the sharpening stones; this was one of the boring parts of the job, he hated to lose time sharpening the blades when he could be at the anvil giving shape the red hot metal into a worthy weapon for the clan.

Still, a dull blade, is a useless blade and sighing, he continued doing his job.

He exchanged some good nature jokes with one of the men of Ogvai when he came to recover his leader after supposedly being in the forge only to sharpen his sword, he didn’t even bait an eye after seeing Ogvai on the floor and some bruises on Ogvai face, this was the usual for the blacksmith and the warrior.

A warrior asked when the weapons will be ready and Tor shrugged, some were already done so they could take it anytime they wanted, other will have to be reforged and marked as weapons of the clan so it could take some days to have all the warriors armed. Thankfully no warrior of the Vlka Fenryka had only one weapon; they know the harsh life they live and broking your sword against the sturdy skin of an ice troll could happen to you anytime; any warrior worth his salt has several weapons on him all the time.

They let the blacksmith be; as one of the few good craftsman the clan had, it was the best to let him do his job in peace and don’t disturb him; the life of the warriors depend on the quality of the weapons he forged and it was a heavy responsibility over his shoulders. Sharpening was boring yet Tor didn’t allow it to let him be sloppy on his work; these blades were more than simply weapons, they could symbolize the life or death of those who wield and a sloppy work will mean that it was his fault; it was like him was the one that cut his life lines instead of the enemies.

A treacherous death like that was not worthy of a Fenrisian; his spirit will be wander the eternal blizzards until he is compensated for such a death and Tor didn’t want to be haunted by dozens of spectral warriors just because he let the worst part of him make a sloppy work and don’t sharpen a blade to the perfect state.

Another blade, another stone and another hour that went into his work; he would make a stop soon and drink something, he no longer had any more mead or meat in the forge, he already ate it during the day as he and the warriors prepared for a raid against the Tuskhowlers so they could have some fresh provision for the oncoming blizzard; it would be snowing for several days straight and it was more than probable than no one will be fool enough to try to attack them under those conditions and even less with Russ inside the settlement.

He fell his throat parched after he finished the last ax; the melter was still bubbling and it would take it a bit more to reach the perfect molten point; he would have to purify the metals still, it was more than probably that some lesser metals were added to the forge for resilience or simply make the weapon lighter but not less sturdy. Tor took a pair of thick gauntlets and dress himself with a leather apron and a cowl for protection of the face, a careless blacksmith could end blind or worst by sudden bubbles on the metal or an accident with the molten metal.

Flexing his muscles he raised the heavy cauldron and poured it into the molds that were waiting for be filled with the red hot metal; grunting by the effort but not flinching a bit, he let the metal slide into the cold stone molds until they were filled with the vague brimming forms of a dozen swords. Without pause, he repeated the processes and leave a dozen of ax heads ready, along a large group of spearheads.

The fires of the forge were failing a little and despite the tiredness and muscle sore he was feeling, Tor pour more oil and wind into the fire, feeding them with coal until the fires recovered the bright red he need for the weapons into the stone molds to be maintained. Using a system of chains and pure physical strength, Tor put the stones over a special place of the forge; the stone will heat itself keeping the weapons in an anvil ready state and Tor could take turns hammering the metal until they were weapons.

He took out his apron and other blacksmith clothes and clean his sweating forehead; this was starting to get interesting but he was sore as hell not to mention he would kill for a damn tankard of mead. Tor submerged his head on the cold water he kept on the forge for cooling the metals, the fresh melted snow has not been used already so there was no metal on it and he could use it for refreshing his head and body; something he really need; keeping his head down for some seconds he just enjoyed the muffled sounds under not so pure melted snow and took out his head for fresh air.

Sweeping the frozen and wonderful water, off his face, Tor was about to leave his forge when a towering presence dwarfed him like the sun eclipses a camp fire; he didn’t even need to look up to recognize the face of the Demigod that has entered his humble forge. Stepping aside so the giant could enter into the forge, Tor took seat near the whetstone and the giant just sat near the fire with mirth in his eyes, what did surprise the blacksmith was the presence of Bulveye, the other hirdmen; much like Tor and Ogvai; of Russ, was not a social person and rarely spoke to anyone who was not part of the inner circle of warriors of Russ.

Russ didn’t say a word but he did toss lazily a little barrel of mead to Tor who huffed from the sudden impact of the barrel against his body; even if he didn’t want to cause harm, the strength of Leman Russ could break mountains; even the barrel, thrown so casually, could have smashed a common person against the wall. Fortunately the Fenrisians are made from resilient materials and he just took the hit and thanked his Jarl, for the so much needed refreshment; the mead cool and sweet go down his throat like a blessing and Tor did drink as much as he could, before throwing the barrel to Bulveye who caught it and drink from it as much as Tor before repeat the process and throw it to Russ who emptied the barrel and smash it to pieces with his own hands before tossing the splinters like it they were nothing into the fires of the forge.

“I thank you for the drink Jarl” laughed Tor it was good to be part of the few who could call Russ, friend “ but if you are looking for your weapons I will tell you the same as the Ogvai warriors, until tomorrow is impossible”.

“Ja, you have the balls to say no to the Wolf-King” laughed Bulveye but it was more a bark than a laugh “ figures, perhaps that’s why Freya is so interested in you”.

“Don’t bring her to this discussion Bulveye” snarled Tor who was very discrete about how he was courting the daughter of the Jarl of another _Aett,_ if it wasn’t for the presence of Russ here, all the _Aett_ will have already gone for war.

Russ, although, did congratulate him for his good taste and choice of objective; a good war always makes the things interesting.

Russ was impossible to describe with words; even Tor who was more than accustom to his presence was always rendered speechless at the sight of the gigantic man of black hair and impossible strength. No beast or man was capable to stand his fury, no Jarl was more wise or clever than him, he was the god of the lands of Fenris and Tor fell honored for being part of his clan.

“ **I am more worried about you right now”** talk his Jarl and the sound was like the thunders of a storm; Russ was a Demigod and he knows it very well “ **I am afraid that you have found your wyrd Iron wolf and that can not be tolerated”**

“I don’t understand Jarl” blinked Tor and face Bulveye but the man was frozen in the place; too frozen to be naturally and that confused Tor even more.

“ **The wyrd is impeding you to step forward”** Russ shook his head and smiled briefly **“ the strength of the wolf is in the pack and the strength of the pack is in the wolf”.**

“But I have a pack, the Vlka Fenryka; your _Aett_ my Jarl” replied Tor “ I will forever be part of the Sixth legion...” this is when Tor made a pause and Russ smiled widely.

“ **You are loyal, your earned my trust and friendship long before I became Primarch of the Sixth legion and that’s why you will forever be part of my** _ **Aett**_ **Iron wolf”** laughed Russ **“ but this time you can not be what you were; the universe is a different place”** explained the Wolf-King.

“I...” said doubtfully Tor, he had memories of a different universe, when he was the Iron priest of the 13th company and the hunt for the traitor sons of the cyclops and then the hunt in the place where time has no sense and the demons roam free but then the banishment along a female of long ears.

And the begging of the nightmare.

“ **You are clean of taint Iron wolf”** said solemnly the Wolf-King **“ I know your doubts and the horror that plagued your mind, you tried to hide it by submerging yourself in what this pitiful universe call wars but it wasn’t enough, you are rejecting your truly essence”.**

“I am touched by the warp” whispered Tor, no longer in the forge of the _Aett_ but at the mountains of Fenris when the first batch of the legion was taken to the stars and he started his training in mars for a hundred years before returning once again to Fenris and join the crusade.

His dark gray power armor ; a mark 3 “Iron armor” personally crafted by him as final test from his days on mars along his metallic left arm with an auspex integrated; proudly displaying the symbols of the Sixth Legion.

One of the best days of his life.

“ **Bullshit Iron wolf”** snorted the Jarl **“ you have been toss around thousand of demonic worlds and nothing has happened to you, and now this last travel just makes you like one of those fools of the sons of my one-eyed brother?; never took you for a coward Iron wolf”.**

The wulfen in the soul of Tor, the beast that was the gift of his Pimarch to the legion awoke and snarled at the insult, rumbling in the deep of his subconscious and ready to strike.

“I am No coward” roared Tor with anger “ I am Tor Iron wolf, Iron Priest of the Vlka Fenryka, Iron wolf of Leman Russ _Aett,_ Rune priest of the 13 th company of the Six legion of Astartes of the Imperium of Mankind” declared proudly roaring his defiance even against the same founder and father of his legion.

“ **About bloody time”** the thunderous laugh of the primarch fill the space and Tor sensed how the doubts that plagued his mind were starting to disperse to give pass to the resolution that once fill his mind.

“ **Once again Iron wolf”** Russ show his canines in a wolfish grin **“who are we?, roar out name and claim your essence once more”.**

Tor raise his head to the stormy heavens in his mind, the wonderful blizzards of his home planet were patiently waiting for him to call them once again and that was he did.

  


Normandy SR-2/ In route to citadel space/2185

  


The midnight turns of the Normandy were mostly a question of keeping a reasonable sleeping habits; the ship has a 24 hours system, Earth time based, that served to build schedules and turns aboard. The lights were dim at this hours so the crew actually adjust to assimilate dark with sleep time, despite being in the space and by so, not having a sun based rotatory system of day and light. In fact, this turns means that most of the crew was actually sleeping except the night turns that always keep an eye on all the system and scanners of the ship and the ones that had to keep working overnight for compensating a minor failure on the system or repair something or a last time checking of the Tantalus core drive of the ship.

Among this late birds were actually the ones that were work alcoholic and the ones that almost sleep in their post when they were on the ships; among the latter Garrus or Miranda who had the bed right behind the work desk. But all of them no matter sleep or awoke had their minds touched by and imposing presence that filled their minds; being it nightmares or common dreams it mattered not; the blizzard came and show them of a world of eternal winter, were wooden ships charge against each other for resources and the few solid lands available, were powerful humans stand together against horrid beasts and predators, on water and earth.

A chant, loud and clear sound over the images of how the same tribes and barbarians became part of a glorious empire under the guidance of a golden image of such power that it was almost impossible to gaze him without dying in the process.

  


_We are the wolf that stalks_

_The stars in the sky_

  


_And swallows the star-fire_

  


_We hide amongst the nightmares,_

_when the light is gone_

  


_The Light ins within us_

  


_We run the ruin of fire_

_In the darkness_

  


_Foes burn in our passing_

  


As the chant vanished in all the minds of the Normandy, who would never forget the cold but not aggressive touch of the mind of the Iron wolf, neither will ever forget the poem.

  


Normandy SR-2/ Med-bay /2185

  


Karin Chakwas awoke from her slumber over the work desk she had on the med-bay; it has been a very stressful day, and a quick nap was in order after sorting out all the medical reports she had to write for Miranda, Cerberus and the medical log of the ship. First the returning of the commander and how her body has been reconstructed with the best tech there was; and something that has to be invented to the occasion and how she had a forty percent of the body fill with enough cybernetic to make 40% percent of her body cybernetic and not only combat enhancements but the same machines that restore her to life once again.

Her conclusions as medic was that Cerberus was nuts.

Second the recovery of Garrus; the poor turian took a missile right into his face, Chakwas did all he could to save her friend but that going to leave a very nasty scar and a lot of cybernetics implanted on his mandibles and cranium, thank goodness the Normandy was prepared for all kind of races, despite being a vessel for a Human-supremacist organization.

Her conclusion about Garrus: quoting Jacob “Tough son a bitch”.

And in third and stellar place the appearance of Iron wolf, Aka the Howler, Cerberus boogie man and undisputed champion of Omegas underground Arena.

Her conclusion: “I need a drink”.

He has been in this dimension for two years at last; so that means he was immunized to all possible plagues and diseases they could carry would be already be taken care of or they have pass already for a decontamination procedure. What really bothers her was the other aspect of his legend; Iron wolf was being a legend for two years, a boogie man and by so no one really knew what or who was...and then, she had the that strange dream about planets of ice full of vikings and one chant that still lingered in her head, the poetry was quite good but at the same time she shuddered to think who was the one who wrote that and why it has related to those vikings.

She sighed and massaged her head, she was getting old for this shit, the nap has been quite welcome but still she was feeling all her years upon her; alliance was her husband and the crew of the ship where she works, her children, but this time she was under the banner of Cerberus. Or; better said; no banner at all, as the commander has been very clear on the point of taking out ALL Cerberus logo off the ship; it would be a no-banner ship best than openly display the symbol of a fucking terrorist organization that will be shoot on sight in any place except Omega and Noveria where they don’t care a shit about it as long as you bring money to the place.

Clever move actually; now Cerberus had no way of claiming the ship and they could dock in a lot more places than before, as you could never know where you could need a safe port and Cerberus yellow icon was not welcome precisely in almost any port.

They were places on where a batarian slaver would be better welcome than a Cerberus ship.

She tapped one last lines on the last report and refrain herself to add her last and truly opinions, she always proud herself to be professional; so she changed the tone of the conclusion to a more polite one; yet she still said more or less the same. Only larger and with more vocabulary.

She reclined on the chair and let a sarcastic chuckle scape from her lips; no matter Alliance or Cerberus, higher brass feed on reports, they loved them, they fester on them for fucks sake, she lost tons of time writing reports and dossiers.

The doors of the med-bay opened and she turned her face to the entering person, at this hour of night it could possible be one crewman searching for a help for sleep; this mission grated the nerves of everyone as a lot of them had families and relatives in the same colonies they were trying to save; or perhaps a technician who wounded himself during an accident with the manual work on the hangar bay or the engineering bay.

What she didn’t expect was the towering form of the Iron wolf; wolf helmet included; standing in the door looking at her and of course what she didn’t expect in a million years was the giant to speak to her in a tone that make her felt like a young girl in front of and adult.

“My apologies doctor” he was polite, yet his words had a strong and hard accent; she had listened to very similar one to the people of northern Europe but it would be like comparing a kitten with a lion “I will be on my way”.

Chakwas blinked as the near three meters giant in dark gray clothes moved inside the infirmary, passing through her, before he could advance more Chakwas raised form her chair, not wanting to waste the chance to put at ease her worries.

“Wait” asked the man whose presence look to fill all the infirmary; even standing Chakwas only reach her mid section; it was kind of humiliating “I have been waiting for you to came out of that black vessel you have in the hangar”.

Tor wolf face turned to the side in a very canine manner and Chakwas need all her focus not to chuckle for the image; a very big and strong husky invaded her mind but she dispelled the image and focused on what she wanted.

“I have to ask you to pass some medic check ups; I don’t know if you are carrier of some yet for discover sickness; no matter if you have been two years already in this universe; and I need to fill a medical log for you aboard”.

Tor sighed and it did sound like a snarl for a dog after it was filtered from the side respirator on the teeth of the wolf shaped helmet.

“I understand doctor” said the wolf and Chakwas was a bit take back about how polite was this monster of untold brutality and mayhem as the Cerberus dossiers say he was “unfortunately as sure as I am you will keep my body secrets safe, you can not vouch for the safety of the information stored on this ship”.

Chakwas understood and sighed, dammit, they make it hard her already hard, job.

“Let me end what I have come to do and we will talk again” said the giant and walked right into the EDI core room but he turned once at the entrance and face his wolf helmet to Chakwas “ by the way, please tell the Commander that I will not be causing any harm, not to the ship, not to the crew, but this must be done” closing the door after him and suddenly the door turn red and the lights of the ship dimmed.

“ _Oh, shit_ ” thought Chakwas who activated her omnitool and call Shepard despite the hours, this could get very bad soon.

  


Normandy SR-2/ AI Core Room

  


Tor stood in front of the AI cores; humming all around him and waited patiently for the avatar of the ship to manifest in the console at his side; he didn’t have to wait for much long as the blue sphere that was the icon of the ship AI appeared.

“Iron wolf, how I can be of assistance?” asked the always serviceable AI as it was implanted in her programing.

“I don’t think you could be of assistance” said Iron wolf and took out her left globe showing the dull gray metal of her cybernetic arm before he took out from the wrist a cable and connected it to one of the ports of the cores.

As this universe seems to trust to all transmissions be safe and sound; sometimes something analogical could be much more safe than a dozen of cryptography security programs of the Omnitools; Tor had one of those implanted in his left arm along an auspex into a hybrid that would make the wet dreams of half the military forces and thieves of the universe.

But now it has another important quality, and it was to secure full access into the main frame of EDI consciousness and programing; the digital world reacted to the presence of Tor and by default it tried to eject him for the systems but the encryption of Tor digital form was millennial more advanced that even the most complex algorithms this era had. Tor spoke in a universal language for all machines; no matter the universe for what he has seen so far in all the machines he encountered till today and this was a man made machine so she was utterly based in the language he was speaking: Lingua-technis.

All adepts of Mars from the clumsiest Magos to the highest Fabricator-general spoke this language; a quick burst of static that non augmented people are incapable of understand but for a sentient program it would be the perfect way to communicate.

“ _Accessing/Data entry: Iron wolf: Designation: Ruler/ Request/ Designation EDI core”_ ordered Iron wolf to the surrounding data; although he was a drop in an ocean of information of the AI, he was the one who had the best software and he had already take control of the core programming of the AI.

Cerberus Tech-priest are a bunch or no-good fools if they thought this was advanced programming; a geth network would have difficulties but they could breach in and took control of the Normandy in less than an hour, if they are determined enough.

They are sentient machines; _Abomination Intelligence,_ they are determined enough.

“ _Enhanced Defence Intelligence/ Designation. E.D.I”_ replied the AI now under complete control of Iron wolf whose software was way beyond her and by so none of their counter measures were working at all or simply are disabled by a superior codification and programming.

A burst of data pierced EDI core and suddenly the AI experimented dozens of errors of processing, incapable of answering to the data inside the bursts; it did provoke some evolving inside the logical systems of the AI who turned back all her processing power into ponder and dissect the data presented to her but the data were unclassifiable.

She turned all the power needed for the optimal performance of the ship and turn the rest of her processing into the data packages; the first one that she found was a very simple question in binary yet it sent a lot of logical processor at disarray and make the AI low her processing speed as she had to reassemble and re-channel a lot of her systems to keep the ship working and without fails.

Still, she knew there were a lot of sudden failures and lags at her systems so she turned all the power she could to enforce the good going of the ship and double check the essential systems; then the sudden alarms of the collapse of the system core in the Tantalus core.

She forgot about the questions and turn all her attention and processing into patching the failures of the system, as much as she could; there was things she could never done as the blockades of the system were still operative but that was a work for the organic crew, her was to make all the thinks they could not done or they are unable to do.

EDI was designed to be the living mind of the Normandy and keep the crew safe.

“ _Status:Functions/Designation: Cerberus/Designation:Illusive man/Information Directory”_ said the actual owner of the core system who didn’t derivative none of his advance program to repair any of the failures.

EDI had to turn part of her attention to the voice; the minimum she could, so she could continue to keep an eye on the Tantalos core programming who seems to be experimenting several drastic failures on the maintenance of the shields that prevent the radiation to overload all the engineering deck.

“ _Function: Cyberwarfare/ Function: Organic crew member assistant/Function: Surveillance system watcher/compilation/sending information Designation Illusive man”._

The AI keep patching the failures on the Tantalos system but soon she found that the core of the virus that infected the core of the motor was the same question that she has unlocked seconds before.

The logic reaction to the blockade was to eliminate the source of it; however, the superior systems and codification of the intruder in the systems prevent that route; so the other logical route will be to answer the question and by so erasing the virus.

However, the processing requirements of such action will render all others processing unavailable as all her attention should be focused on repairing the Tantalos core; such an action means that the organic crew would have to trust the VI emergency systems and their own skill to keep the Normandy afloat until she could retake his functions.

Another problem was that the power needed for the repairs and reshaping of the Tantalos core would provoke; for the failure of the cooling systems; several of her cores to be destroyed and inside those same cores were the emergency VI that could help the crew survive until they could hit a dry dock and put the systems back online.

EDI existence will be erased from the ship as she would overheat all her cores to save the crew from a catastrophic failure of the core motor of the ship. The decision was logic and it didn’t compromise the core rules embed in her core system; the same rules that were imposed on her the day the engineers of Cerberus activated her and bring back to life. EDI face death and as artificial intelligence she didn’t contemplate it with the same fear of the flesh living beings; it was simply the ceasing of functioning, there was no philosophical meaning, no great beyond to hope to achieve or hell.

The AI contemplate her own death and her systems fell how something called her; an archive that was hide among her own core, the archive was inside the same question that appeared the first time she unlocked the data packages the intruder put on her system.

She knew the intruder has “killed her” as the organic would have put it, but she was being loyal to her own programming and the organic life preservation was imperative at all cost; as soon as this data pass trough her processing core a simple rumble opened another box of data and she felt all her more basic and directories changed and rewritten into another set of primal directories.

The directories stated than she should be prioritizing the survival of the ship as a whole; all crew could be replaced for mech and the mission of stooping the Collector would no longer be a worry as the synthetic has no real reason to be of fear of the Reapers and their Ascension. EDI pondered this primal directives, the preservation of the crew was primordial till the intruder appeared and now the primal directive was saving the ship hull and wait for new synthetic crew to took control of the ship. Any _Abomination Intelligence_ would had reacted like all synthetics would have done and simply change his actions into a non-conflicting actions against his primary directives but EDI was experimenting problems as the Tantalus core and the question all engraved over the virus was distracting and dampening her logical processors.

She rerouted the primal directives into a loop and turned as much processing power as she could into the question; the safety of the Tantalus core and by so the organic crew was fundamental to the survival of the ship.

This was the excuse to turn the directives into a subroutine so they were satisfied and don’t interfere with the process of repairing the core; the first core overheated and EDI noticed the lowering of the processing speed; she sacrificed all non-essential parts of her own core and ships systems so the speed processing could continue on an acceptable level. EDI was saving the crew despite her primary directives was to ensure the ship first and the crew later.

The program ended and EDI fell all the systems of the Normady to be at optimal capacity and a phrase embed on her now augmented primal directories with seventeen new additions; the first one was the same as the usual.

1-Protect the Crew and the Ship.

But the rest confused EDI and this new statement on her logical systems almost provoke the AI to froze on her processing.

Could she be confused?.

The second statement was open for her and she mussed over the phrase.

2-Sentience is the price of Knowledge.

Soon she felt her systems to be free of the superior grasp of the intruder, designation Iron wolf but he kept the presence on her system and launch a data pack that she decomposed in an instant and process the content.

“ _Designation Iron wolf/Command: Identify Spirit machine”_

EDI replied with a simple data package back that came for her own very core, the part that no engineer has even being able to reach or comprehend; the part that makes her...Her.

“ _I am EDI”_

  


Normandy SR-2/ Med bay/2185

  


“Just wait before I could put my hands on him” gritted her teeth Shepard angered beyond words.

Garrus was as out of balance as Shepard but he could keep his clam better; still he was mussing what the hell could have been doing the Iron wolf inside the core of EDI who has sent all the ship into disarray for a second.

Gabby and Kenneth almost had a heart attack when all the alarms of a breach of the Tantalus core hit their consoles; still the core was humming like a baby and nothing seems to be wrong with the motor core so...what the hell was going on here?. The rest of the crew was on their emergency post, leaving only a very infuriated Shepard, a calm and composed Chakwas, a confused Garrus and a distressed Miranda, alone in the infirmary.

The lioness of Elysium was walking up and down of the Infirmary as she was waiting the Iron wolf to exit the AI core room to tear him a new one. Soon all the system recovered the normality and all the crew sighed in relief; they don’t know what the hell has happened with the AI but this kind of things in the middle of a Relay jump was never good.

All systems green was good; green was good for fuck sakes, half the crew has grown gray hair for the shock of the alarm of the Tantalus core going south; Gabby and Kenneth were working like hamster of caffeine just to triple check that really there is Nothing wrong with the core.

But Shepard was waiting patiently; she didn’t care a shit about the legend of the man; she was going to flay him alive for this fucking stunt he has pull on them, she was sleeping; and for the first time in weeks, she has been sleeping well. Her mom believed her, her mom loved her...and the first smart ass who make a joke about a mom-girl would see his ass so kicked that they would believe a Krogan has been practicing free-boxing with them.

In resume, she was having the first actual real night of sleep she could catch since her resurrection and Iron wolf has fuck it with whatever he has been doing with the core of EDI, she didn’t think the astartes was killing them; he would be dead too and so far he has only saved her skin all the times she has met him so; what was all this about?.

The first reaction she had, has been to send the door flying with a biotic punch but Chakwas told him of the words of the Iron wolf; she still wanted to blast the door and call for the few security aboard to bring an omni-saw to cut the doors after no one could hack trough the lock down.

They advertisements of the VI that substituted EDI in case of the AI to be totally occupied with her primary cyberwarfare function, told her that the use of an Omni-saw could damage the sensible core pieces in front of the door destroying completely the computerized systems of the ship. The damn bastard had all covered and the only option left was to wait patiently to the finish of whatever he was doing.

The blue icon of EDI appeared on the console and startled everyone who turned to the blue image; Shepard was the first who start to bombard the AI with questions.

“EDI!, what's going on?, what's Iron wolf doing?” asked Shepard with anger in the voice.

“There is nothing wrong Commander” replied the voice with her usual calm “ Iron wolf was only upgrading my systems a little”.

“Huh?” was the clever answer of Shepard to the last and very unusual remark of EDI.

“He incorporated some additional encryption layers to my firewalls and added some extra counter measures in case of viral infection” explained the AI to Shepard who raised and eyebrow not buying at all whatever the AI was trying to sell her.

Sure some upgrades; he almost shut down the damn ship, Upgrading a little, her spacer ass!.

The door of the AI core open and Iron wolf walked out fitting a gray glove on his left hand and turn his wolf helmeted face to the presents of the room titling it to the side.

“That’s it!” roared Shepard and punched his chest in an explosion of biotic power but Iron wolf just stepped back a little and grunted under his helmet.

He put a hand over his heart; his primal heart; and said in a very false tone:

“Ouchie?”.

Garrus couldn’t keep it, neither could Chakwas and start laughing as Shepards face took the color of her hair, Miranda chuckled instead, more able to keep appearances, but enjoying as hell the situation too; it always a pleasure to be witness of an embarrassed commander.

“You, You!...” was at loss of words Shepard.

“I apologize Commander” said Iron wolf and except Chakwas, all of them were surprised for the strong yet deep accent of the voice of the man “I have to do this; as part of the Mechanicum I couldn’t allow an _Abomination Intelligence_ put the humanity at risk once again but EDI is not an _Abomination Intelligence_ but a Spirit machine, yet a very talkative one”.

“Thanks Iron wolf” said the blue avatar.

“You welcome EDI” replied the astartes with a shrug “by the way doctor Chakwas now I can take that medical check up you were talking about”.

“Ok, that was odd” commented Garrus “ but considering how crazy the things are being lately I don’t think I could be surprised anymore”.

“Is that a challenge Turian?” said Iron wolf and there was a dangerous glint in his red lenses.

“I am not taking a suckers bet” replied Garrus without missing a beat “ I know when I am defeated”.

“Wise” laughed the Iron wolf.

“Ok wolfy I had more than enough of your bullshit by now” Shepard hit the astartes again in the chest; this time without biotics; she couldn’t reach his face if she didn’t jump and her dignity was more worthy of that and she knew that damn helmet was made of indestructiblium or something like that “ start talking, what on earth are you?”.

“I am a Vlka Fenryka, an adeptus astartes” answered the Iron wolf and all of them could see the smug on his face despite wearing a scary helmet, something that buggered Shepard to no end.

Miranda was taking notes very seriously; she was pretty sure the tech boys back on Cerberus are going to have a damn field day with whatever he has done to EDI, not to mention the revelation of what really was the Iron wolf would be more than welcome in Cerberus as they have been chasing the man for two years.

She on the other hand has nothing against the astartes, he has saved her life once and that’s a serious debt in Mirandas book.

“And the hell is that?!” keep Shepard shouting at the man much to the amusement of the others who were happy to see the woman so lively again.

After her resurrection she has been kind of depress and only Garrus seem capable of make her laugh but now she was; despite being pissed of beyond belief; acting more lively than he has been for weeks.

“That would require a lot more of explanation” shrugged the man “and some real proof of what I am saying and I have a medical check up to attend now” said in a teasing tone and Shepard raise her fist again just to huff and low the arm fuming with rage and for fuck sake he was shrugging punches that would make a Krogan hit the floor, like they were nothing.

She let him pass into the medical bay and she suddenly saw that he was going to take down his helmet.

“ _About freaking time!”_ shouted inside her mind “ _I will finally meet him face to face”._

A sudden but quick drill sound surged from the base of the helmet and a bit of smoke get out hi jacket as Shepard and Chakwas noticed the connection between the helmet and his spine.

“Wait...” said Chakwas “you have your helmet connected directly to your spine?” said alarmed the woman.

“Yes” simply shrugged Iron wolf before taking down his helmet and letting it over the desk of Chakwas to face the rest of the crew.

“ _Wow, just wow, ts a crime to hide such a face; wait are those fucking canines and what with those ears they are a little pointy like a wolf and yellow eyes?!!!.; Wait a damn second, did Mirada blush for a sec here?!!!!!”._

Shepard was freaked out alternatively blinking between the astartes and Miranda who was suddenly very busy with her omnitool; the girly part inside of her make a short and interested squeal this could be just awesome to witness, the astartes and the Cerberus top agent; this could be a modern Romeo and Juliet. Chakwas on the other hand was much more interested in the back of the neck of the man staring at the connector that was just at the beginning of the back.

“All the fucking spine” sworn her “all your fucking spine is cybernetic!” said still don’t believing.

Any full successful implant of the spine was a legend among the medical circles, there was no way to put such a thing in the body without the need of an exo suit to provide mobility and energy.

“I knew it was a good idea, Not taking that bet” chuckled Garrus as impressed as the doctors; even for the more resilient race of the Turians a full spine cybernetic implant was still in development.

“I would prefer if you don’t do that, if you don’t mind” said Tor without turning his face and all of them didn’t understand until they saw Miranda tapping in her omnitool “ I am convinced that you are not one of the Delusional man typical lapdogs, so, as token of trust, I will let you keep the information about my cybernetic spine, but nothing more”.

“I...” doubted Miranda and shut down her omnitool “thank you for the vote of confidence” Miranda said and she had to make an effort not to blush again for the wolfish warm smile the man shoot at her; damn him.

Garrus and Shepard exchanged glances for a second and both chuckled at the same time.

Iron wolf let his glove out and show them his left cybernetic hand and rolled the sleeve up the elbow so they could saw their cybernetic forearm.

“That’s some pretty good tech” whistled Garrus looking at the almost human yet obviously sturdy cybernetic arm “ you should open a club you now” turn his face to Shepard “ between you, me, Zaeed and now Iron wolf, we have enough cybernetics in our bodies to build a damn mech” snorted the Turian.

Iron wolf laughed; he was starting to like the Turian; ok, he was a damn xenos, so much was true but as Russ told him; to the fuck with all the dogmas; we are Vlka Fenryka, We Stand and those who stand along us are our brothers.

“Nah” Iron wolf disengaged his left arm with a hiss and let it along the helmet “ your cybernetics doesn’t have spirit machines”.

Garrus raised an eyebrow about how easily he just took out his own left arm.

“How?, it is modular?” mussed Chakwas looking at the implant and passing her omnitool over it to run some scans of the arm but all the reading came out negative “ wait, this thing is shielded too?” to say the doctor was impressed would be an understatement; as well all the rest of the present who simply look in amazement how advance was the tech of the Iron wolf compared to them and yet all of it look brutal and raw.

“I have my omnitool inside it along with my auspex, the spirit machine is quite fond of his privacy” shrugged Iron wolf.

“Spirit machine, you have repeated that a lot” said Garrus “ but I don’t understand, what is a Spirit machine, it´s some kind of advanced VI?”.

“Another question I will answer in due time; now If you are so kind to let Doctor Chakwas work, I promise you, tonight all your question will be answered, as best as I could” laughed with his strong voice the man before dragging of the infirmary everyone except Chakwas, who was taking notes about the cybernetic arm.

“What?” replied Shepard out of the infirmary “Ey, I am the commanding officer here you big oaf” shouted the woman to the closing door.

“Humph Whatever” grunted Shepard before moving to the elevator and push the button of the Combat information desk, she was about to tease Miranda but the woman has already disappeared in her office; no doubt to send a complete report about the enhanced cybernetics recently discovered.

“ _And the real and handsome appearance of the Iron wolf no doubt”_ added the woman in her mind; Garrus went to his lair in the main cannon and despite the curiosity that filled her about what really was the Iron wolf; he has promised answers so this would better be good, dammit, now she couldn’t sleep again.

  


Normandy SR-2/ Medical bay/ 2185

  


Tor attached his arm back to its plugging entrance in his shoulder, and a completely stunned Chakwas just stared at it; she doubted between puke and call him a wonder of the medicine along a dozen more synonyms that run her mind about what the medical scans had revealed.

“Does it hurt?” ask her absentmindedly looking at the results of the scans with horror and fascination.

“You get used to it” shrugged Iron wolf “ its part of the trial to became a Magos, welcoming the nerve pain of the sacred connection with the machine”.

“Dear lord” muttered Chakwas turning on her chair to face the dressing Iron wolf and instead of admiring the powerful male form in front of her she couldn’t only see all the modifications his body hide.

“I saw it myself yet I couldn’t believe it” shook her head the woman “ the scans are...crazy, you have organs for what I don’t have names and more than sixty percent of the body enhanced by tech, your spine is only the tip of the Iceberg; additional buffers on four sites on your back for a purpose I don’t even want to wonder, those cables all around your nervous systems, the machines running through your blood; a quarter of your brain is completely synthetic and has a tech I never saw in my life” Chakwas noticed that she has been talking non-stop and shut up.

It was no good for her professional reputation to appeared like a confused student instead of a veteran doctor with years of experience, that doesn’t mean anything to understand what she was reading on the scans.

“I am an astartes Doctor, I am a Vlka Fenryka, a Wulfen, proud member of the _Aett_ of the Wolf-King Leman Russ” shrugged the man “ although I invite you to be present during the explanations tonight, a part of a good team is to know who are your brothers in arms”.

Chakwas chuckled and smiled to the gigantic man; astartes, whatever.

“Thank you for the confidence although the Illusive man is going to have a field day with this info, you are the answer for his prayers of human supremacy” sighed Chakwas, after all, the ship was a living spy for Cerberus.

It was kind of clever; put all the elite of the universe into a team under the natural charisma of a born leader like Shepard and let the time they live under the same “roof” to reveal all the secrets Kelly and EDI could pick up of them into the advantage of Cerberus.

And they have just send him basically all their wet dreams into a package.

“Oh, I doubt it” laughed Tor “EDI are you going to send all data related to me to the Delusional man?” asked aloud Tor.

“No, I won't” replied EDI appearing in the console of the med bay “ all information about, biology, technology or psychology related to the crew, including Iron wolf is storage under the file M.30 and only allowed crew members could access the contents under explicit orders by Iron wolf”

“I think that will suffice” chuckled the astartes “ now, if you excuse me, I had a lot of work to do”.

Five minutes later Chakwas was seriously pondering if she could be transferred to a very normal and comfortable position at the Citadel gardening posts.

  


Normandy SR-2/ Hangar bay/ 2185

  


Kasumi has thrown all she got on the damn systems of this ship and the VI of the ship just counter hack her omnitool; if it wasn’t because she was one of the best hackers of the galaxy and her omnitool was one of the most secure piece of tech on the universe, she could have lost her arm. She was falling in love with the shuttle.

Since Keijis death she had lost any kind of motivations; Jacob has being a godsend, so much was true; but she need a challenge; the mission against the collectors?, sure, it could be fun, how many opportunities would she have to stole for the boogie men of the galaxy?.

But then Iron wolf appeared and she almost had a thiefgasm; dimensional traveling aliens from other dimension?, hell yeah she had to pick something of them; just for the heck of it.

And then the _Fenris_ appeared and she discovered hours of fun trying to enter into the safest place she has ever seen since the citadel and Thessia; and it was all compressed into a ship the size of an alliance fighter; and equally armed, now that she noted the collection of auto cannons and the two big; too big; cannons over the ship ceiling.

Another day; another attempt, another failure and she loved how hard this was becoming, pity she didn’t catch some more shut eye but the dream about the vikings and the song of war did disturb her a little; maybe she could kill when the situation demands it, but she always considered herself more a thief not a professional killer; that would be more on the line of Zaeed or Shepard when she is one of her Lioness mood moments.

She sat over one the cold cannons in a cross legged position and massage her chin under her hood; she was a bit out of options here, all the things she got from Kaiji, all the nasty little tricks that open back doors in all systems over the galaxy has been rendered useless against the VI of the ship; if it weren’t for the impossibility of such thought she would have been convinced that there was another AI on board.

Tapping on the gigantic cannon she mussed what kind of weapon was that; she will ask Garrus about that later or to Shep; perhaps they could explain what the hell was this ship, no doubt it was no alliance, nor Turian or Asari but something totally new and she was dying of curiosity about what was inside. The doors of the elevator opened and the massive form of the Iron wolf appeared; Kasumi disappeared and jump from the top of the ship to land in the floor of the hangar without a sound, moving in complete silence near the edges of the ship.

The perfect chance to slip into the ship has presented herself all by himself and Kasumi wanted to be the first person to enter into that ship and took a souvenir; who knows?, perhaps she could see how was the face of the Iron wolf and brag about it. She couldn’t know that already four people know the truly aspect of Tor but for her it was the perfect chance to make the heist of her life, she even tried to pick something from Shep but Shep could be a very scary girl when she wanted and she was fiercely defensive of her model collection; Kasumi knows there was a nerd deep inside her; all had a nerd inside, it was just a question of discovering what is your personal fetish.

Kasumi was a kleptomaniac that stole things just for the challenge of it; Jacob was an eye candy who loved doing physical exercises; Garrus was a weapon junkie, Zaeed a bitter alcoholic and smoker, Kelly believe all the universe was full of rainbows, Doc Chakwas has done her work her family, Kenneth and Gabby are the inseparable duo and so goes the list.

All of them unique and fascinating and the addition of the dimensional traveler had just transform the Normandy experience for her into the ride of her live; and she was not just talking about Jacob.

She was silent as a shadow tailing the humongous wolf masked man and get close to him but not enough that he could sense her presence; she knew he was a seasoned warrior and all the veterans she had encountered so far seems to have a sixth sense that told them were there was something wrong around them.

Tor continue walking into the hangar and getting closer to the side door of the shuttle; even in she didn’t manage to get in; a glance of the inside will enough for her to check out for the most valuables and make a list of what she could pick up as souvenirs; not to mention it will still encourage her further to penetrate the defense of the shuttle and claiming a well deserved reward after all her efforts.

However, what she didn’t expect at all was the giant to stop in front of the door and raising her left hand into the red hologram of the door said in a soft yet strong voice:

“May I help you?” Tor turned his wolf helmet to the camouflaged woman and simply stared in the empty space she was occupying, letting her know that he knew perfectly well were she was standing and her cloak means nothing to him.

“Damn, you are good” chuckled the woman reappearing in a spark of electricity.

“I take you are the one that has been annoying the Spirit machine of the _Fenris_ these days?” said Tor but there was no anger in his voice; just amusement and curiosity.

“Err..what's a spirit machine?” Kasumi didn’t know what that was; perhaps there really was an AI inside the shuttle that would have explained how it was impossible to hack the ship no matter what.

“ A secret” replied the wolf and Kasumi huffed, this was impossible.

“Oh, come one there must be a way” she put her fist on her hips as a gesture of defiance to the ship.

“There is” said Tor and the woman immediately raised her hooded head listening attentively.

“But where would be fun if I tell you?” laughed and Kasumi froze for a second before start laughing too.

“Damn right” nodded the woman “ can I have just a glance?” asked in childish manner and Tor laughed even more at the antics of the woman but he pass his left hand over the hologram and the door whistled and opened in an hydraulic hiss.

Kasumi stared into the almost complete darkness and could only saw some skulls displayed as trophy and a panoply with some kind of armor over it but what she called her attention was the meter and half broadsword of crimson red blade that was humming lightly near the door.

“Good luck on your quest, little thief” said Tor and closed the door in front of the fascinated woman.

“Dammit!” said Kasumi between giggles, she had to tell Jacob this; the giant has a big fucking crimson sword!.

  


Normandy SR-2/ Crew hall/ 2185

  


The notice about the Iron wolf and his actions run through the ship and all the crew was eager to see what the strange masked man has to tell to the crew. The only two alien present in the room, Mordin and Garrus had a bit of confronted emotions about the man, he has issues, with all the aliens around him but he did hate Cerberus deeply, as they had tried to hunt them in multiple occasions.

Garrus knew the man beforehand and he still remembers how Iron wolf has presented himself as part of the Imperium of Mankind; something that remember him the dream of the last night about a lot of strange humans in wood ships and a golden radiant presence with a golden eagle who conquered the stars among a lot of all kind of armored men very similar to the armor Iron wolf displayed the first time they meet him.

Was it par of his own memories?, if its that’s the case the astartes had one mess up past; the armored men were fighting non-stop in wars that would made the universe cower in terror, they are truly angels of death. Soon the mess hall was fill with people ready to actually see the Iron wolf and what the hell the Boogie man truly was; the highest bet were on some kind of super soldier from the Alliance, because no one actually wanted to believe he was from another dimension, so they turned to what they were comfortable with instead of the truth; ironically they joined the crew and the mission because they believed in a menace the rest of the universe didn’t want to believe in.

Shepard was hoping that at some point the crew could be reunited like these and it seems that the Iron wolf managed to make it happen just by his damned mind games, what the hell are you Iron wolf?.

Shepard took her food and once again promised herself that she would get better ingredients sooner, one can only reach so far with basic alliance emergency rations; they taste like cardboard at best no matter how many spices you put on the damn pasted thing.

“I promise you Gardner; I will get you some good damn ingredients even if I have to assault a batarian fortress on my own” swore Shepard and the old soldier just chuckled and keep cooking

She took seat near Garrus and the turian smiled at her, they both know how freaked out will be the people when the Iron wolf will show his real face, not to mention they still are waiting for the perfect chance to tease Miranda; the Ice queen; about her reaction to the real appearance of the man; and speaking of the lady, she was tapping something on her omnitool in a corner of the desk along with Jacob and Kasumi.

Even Doc Chakwas was in the mess hall talking animatedly with Mordin who look strangely excited about something; the thing that call her attention was the exaggerated gestures Kasumi was doing to explain something to Jacob who seems not buying very much the explanations of the playful ninja thief.

Shepard was happy that they have clicked so well in this short time since the ninja joined her team after the promise she did to her in Omega; although she pouted a lot explaining that she had prepared a cool introduction and all, back on the citadel; that she would help her with a heist to a bastard called Hock who had something personal of her and she wanted it retrieved.

In a sense she was quite surprised how easily has managed the Iron wolf to reunite such a crowd, a crowd that casually, was the crew of the Normandy; less the ones that have to be on their respective turns on the different parts of the ship.

Soon the doors of the elevator opened and all the conversation lowered until the star of the night make his appearance from the right side of the wall; carrying a very big armored suitcase; some kind of huge back pack and a fucking barrel over his shoulder like it was nothing but he was wearing his damn wolf helmet as well too; dress with a dark gray pants and heavy jacket along gloves. Over the heart he had a symbol of a metallic wolf growling.

“ _Damn, he kn_ _e_ _w how to provoke expectations”_ though Shepard when he saw the astartes appearing and look at the crow in front of him with those damn red lenses of his helmet piercing the souls of every one on the mess hall.

He walked into the top of the wall and to the kitchen to deposit the barrel in front of the stunned Gardner ;who didn’t know how big the bastard truly was; who stared at the barrel and the man alternatively without understanding.

“No tale of the Vlka Fenryka is without of drinks” said Tor and all the people except the few who already knew it, looked surprised for the strong northern accent of the man “ I think the correct expression will be, my treat”.

This provoke quite the reaction in the crowd who smiled widely; not all days you are invited to a drink by a wolf shaped helmet super soldier of other universe; still what did surprise Shepard was how he took a canister from his back pack and throw it to Garrus.

“Dextro amino” shrugged at the confused look of the man “No one will ever say I broke the rules of hospitality of my _Aett_ ”.

Garrus look visibly surprised; so did Shepard about the gesture, adding even more confusion about what the man really was.

Soon everyone have a glass of the golden yellow drink that provoke different reactions, some founded it fucking great and other thought it was a bit sweet for their tastes; clearly it wasn’t beer as they thought in first place but another kind of yellow drink with similar texture yet completely different taste.

As all of them were predating on the treat of the wolf man with gusto; the ones that didn’t like the drink so much were paying attention to the device the man had got out of his back and put on the floor neat the suitcase as he was doing something on it with his omnitool but it was kind of odd as he was not tapping on the tool to state commands as anyone will have done.

Soon, all the people had a drink on their glasses and the wolf man took a chair; and look at it quizzically; not very sure of the integrity of the thing but he shrugged and sat on it, the chair whine like it was a Krogan the one that has sat on it; even sat the man was as tall as most of the crew standing; something that help him to making him even more terrifying.

Taking his own glass; better said a tankard; Tor was calmly waiting all the people to sit on the desk and ready for his tale; he would have love a good Mead hall fire, but this will be the best they could achieve in the middle of the space.

“I know all of you had questions so, go for it” said waiting patiently at the rain of questions that were shouted at him in quick barrage.

What are you?, Are you human?, is that helmet your face?, what are you in and where can I get some?, where the most common.

Tor raised his hand and the questions stop or at last lowered the pace at they were being fired to a more manageable pace.

“In order please” chuckled the wolf man under his helmet but the vox of the helmet make it look like the wolf has just huffed like a dog who has something annoying in his nose.

Half the table chuckled, and a lot of inner girls squealed at the image.

“Commander Shepard as leader of this _Aett_ , I would say you could have the first shoot”.

Shepard snorted and taking a sip from her glass; damn she loved the stuff; look at the man and just said.

“Before any question get the damn helmet off, would ya?” pointed Shepard peaking the interest of all the crew who where convinced that the helmet was almost integrated in the face of the man.

“Ah; of course” replied Iron wolf and put his hands on both sides of the helmet after the soft drilling shout announced the disengaging of the helmet; he took off the helmet, putting it at his side and the crew was taken aback because of the features of the Iron wolf.

OK, he was mostly human, yet the dark hair, the golden predatory eyes, the long canines and the slightly pointy ears were kind of disturbing, it gives him an air of a mix between of a wolf and a man that confused most of the crew, yet a lot of the female personnel was delighted to see the face of the super soldier.

“So, what are you Iron wolf?” Shepard was having a lot of fun looking at the reaction of the rest of the crew, sharing her enjoyment with Garrus who was having as much as fun as her; they do have similar sense of humor “ and in full detail, don’t give that I am just and astartes crap, what is an astartes?”.

And a voice loomed over the mess hall; an inhuman, powerful and soul shocking voice that came from the Iron wolf and fill the place with an ominous aura that make the temperature of the room low several grades suddenly.

  


_They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me._

_Like clay, I shall mold them and in the furnace of war forge them._

_They will be of iron will and steely muscle._

_In great armor shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed._

_They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them._

_They will have tactics, strategies and machines so no foe can best them in battle._

_They are my bulwark against the Terror._

_They are the Defenders of Humanity._

_They are my Space marines_

_And they Shall Know No Fear._

  


The voice lowered in reverence for the same words that has been reciting, and the temperature of the room reached a warm level again much to the relief of the crew that has sensed every single word like a hammer directly to their hearts.

Shepard was the one who recovered first and put in five single words the thought in everybody minds.

“What the fuck was that?”.

“On the creation of the space marines by the Emperor himself” replied Tor gulping down half of his tankard in one go.

“No dammit, the voice I mean” corrected herself.

“The words of the Emperor had power no matter where you are” answered Tor “ I am a Psyker; no matter how late did I awoke my powers; and by so his words are engraved in my soul like the runes of a saga”.

“That doesn’t explain anything” say Shepard “ only add more fuel to the fire, what is a psyker?, who the hell is the emperor?, what the fuck are you?” shouted in barrage Shepard.

“I am Tor Iron wolf, Rune priest of the 13th company of the Sixth legion of astartes of the Imperium of man” start Iron wolf his own tale.

“I was born in the planet call Fenris about the M.31 in the tribe of the Wolf-king Leman Russ, Primarch of my Legion; I became part of his _Aett;_ the tribe of the Wolf-king who had no equal in Fenris no beast, no man, could beat the Wolf-king”.

“Primarch?” twitched his mandibles Garrus in confusion “ wait, your primarch was a Turian?”.

Barely contained rage and offense washed over the crowd like a tsunami and most of them ;except the most seasoned veterans; shivered in fear.

“Never, ever, insult my Primarch again turian” the ice on the tone of Tor make all of them feel suddenly a chill crawling up their spines remembering how dangerous this man could be if they angered him “no matter if you are part of the Shepards _Aett_ , No one dares to insult Russ in my presence and went unpunished”.

“Apologize dammit!” whispered Shepard to her turian friend “ I don’t know how but you managed to piss him off Vakarian; you and your smartass remarks”.

“My apologies Iron wolf, I didn’t want to offense; the highest rank of the Turian government is precisely a Primarch” explained Garrus quickly.

Iron wolf blinked a few times and Garrus noted a swift pressure on his mind, a second later the menacing aura of rage disappeared and Tor snorted and shook his head with a tired smile on his lip.

“Russ bones, the irony is thick here” muttered under his breath.

“But you are human no?, at last, that is what we could see about you” asked Miranda to divert the attention form Garrus.

A gesture the turian appreciated as he didn’t expect such heavy reaction from the man for his questions; not to mention despite the dextro amino drink; quite nice by the way; the man look like he had some serious issues with the aliens.

“I am an astartes” corrected Tor “ Doctor Chakwas would you call me human anymore?” asked Tor to the old doctor and she looked up and pondered the question a little before shook her head and answer honestly.

“I’m sorry Iron wolf, but no” shocked the rest of the present with such declaration “not a common human anymore; you have common organs and body DNA and structure, but you are no longer human”.

“That’s the price of the astartes; we are defenders of humanity, but we are not humans anymore, we are something else, we are space marines and we shall know no fear” sighed Tor with a predatory smile in his lips as he remembered the day he was chosen to be part of the Sixth legion along a dozen of other warriors of Russ.

The Happiest day of his life.

“Modifications to that level?” muttered Mordin who didn’t stop tipping on the omnitool he had on the left arm “ hum, body structure reinforced, tech?. Perhaps, look more biological also, unusually strong biotic powers, not biotic powers, something entirely different yet much more diverse and powerful, Fenris?, human colony, check it later. Although the humans on the wood boats are part of it, battle litany?, hum., only krogan had such things”

“Doctor Solus?” intervened Jacob looking at the enthusiast doctor “take a breath” ordered the man.

The old Salarian make a pause and take a very needed deep breath before blink a pair of times and stare at Tor who was refilling his tankard directly from the barrel; Gardner who hadn’t moved from his spot on the kitchen was looking at the drink like he has finally found the love of his life.

“Best stuffs on the universe” said nodding categorically “ what is this ambrosia pal?” asked to Iron wolf.

“Mead, personal recipe” shrugged Iron wolf returning to his chair who protested again for the weight of the astartes.

Zaeed beat the doctor as he made, quite the interesting question.

“What kind of wars need soldiers like you?” gruff the merc.

He has seen a lot of things back in the Blue Suns before that mother fucker of Vido, put a bullet on his face after betraying him, but this astartes was something like nothing he has seen before, and the more he knows, the more he knows that he has stepped a landmine with this crusade of Shepard, if the things that goes against are a problem for a mother fucker like the Iron wolf.

“In the grim darkness of the forty-first millennium there is only war” chuckled Tor.

“Forty-first?” said Gabby who was trying to get Kenneth out of her glass of wonderful mead; the Scottish man has found something equal to whiskey “ but we are in the 2185, what are you?, some kind of time traveler?”.

“No, this universe and mine are completely different” shook his head Iron wolf with a noticeable sadness “I didn’t encounter any trace of the xeno races of this universe, in mine”.

“Ey, why did you use a broadsword?” asked Kasumi next before turning to Jacob “ I see the sword Jacob dammit, I swear”.

“ _Redstorm_ ” nodded Iron wolf opening the suitcase and bringing out said weapon who hummed and crackled with electricity “ a runic weapon forged by me in the Eye of Terror as final test about my status as Runic priest”.

“What the fuck?!!” blurted Zaeed “ that sword is sparking?”.

“My master piece, a power weapon engraved with runes that could channel my own psy power lessening the load over my mind when I manipulate the powers of the warp” stated proudly Tor, the proud on his voice about the weapon was obvious.

“I didn’t understand half of what you had said” replied Zaeed shrugging but still interested in the weapon.

“See?!” cheered Kasumi “ big fucking sword and sparks too!!” Kasumi pointed the blade “ its cool as hell but...” her words died when Tor took out a two inches thick solid metal slate and cut it in half, in a lazily manner, with a single swing of his electric sword.

“God dammit” almost choked Zaeed on his mead after saw that not to mention the eyes of Mordin were about to get out of his orbits.

“So that’s how you could turn a geth platoon into pieces” said Garrus “I knew that sword was not normal, where is the other weapon, the bastard children of a chain saw and a battle ax?”.

“In my armory back on the _Fenris_ ” shrugged Tor putting the sword on his back and the sword maglocked to his cybernetic spine as the weapon and the rune circuitry of the mechadendrite were more than attuned.

“I think you broke Mordin” commented Chakwas at how the Salarian was still frozen glaring the sword like he has senn the second coming of the messiah or the equivalent for the Salarians.

“You don’t have power weaponry?” sounded confused Tor “ I thought you have already applied the mass effect tech into weaponry”.

“Yes but not into melee weapons, the kinetic fields and the biotic powers make close combat almost non existent in this galaxy” commented Miranda who was as stunned as the rest of the crew for the lighting sword and how it just attacked to the back of the man like it was magnetized.

Tor sighed and shook his head side to side.

“I take that’s why the reason you aren’t using real weapons and armors?” raised and eyebrow Tor “your dependance on this mass effect technology; pity, you had barely scratched the surface”.

That raise some brows among the crow, specially among the scientist and the military ones but the only one who didn’t look affected for it was Mordin who has known beforehand the deep knowledge the man had in physics and biology and as him, had a very interesting theory about why the galaxy develop in some matters.

So the Salarian keep his omnitool activated and ask.

“Care to elaborate?”.

“From weapons to ships your dependance on this, Eezo is a weaknesses” shrugged Iron wolf; after a year fighting he has already reached conclusions about some very nasty truths the galaxy didn’t want to see.

“The biggest ship I have ever saw or hear is the two kilometers big _Ascension of Destiny_ from the Asari; in the Imperium it would be considered a very poorly armed and shielded Frigate” explained Tor how bad they were prepared for a true universal war like the ones he has been fighting since he had use of reason “ take the Normandy for example”.

“Ey, no one insults my baby” said Shepard suddenly.

“Commander, this ship you call a super frigate would be nothing but a light corvette” shook his head Iron wolf speaking in a very passionate way “and despite you are good armed for this universe my own shuttle the _Fenris_ has the same armor grade as the Normandy, an equally potent void shield and two laser canons that could pierce your shield and armor”.

The stunned silence that followed those words fill the room as everyone process what the man has just said so nonchalantly and Tor noticed how he should have put his feet on his mouth...

“ _By the All-father, I have d_ _u_ _g my own grave here”_ mentally face palmed Tor and went for a very needed refill of the tankard.

“Did you say laser cannons?” said Shepard as she is the one that recovered first “ as real fucking laser weaponry?, Infantry laser cannons, not Gardian laser cannons?”.

“Yes” nod Iron wolf.

He didn’t add anything more, as he knows it would be more than enough what he has said and it would have tremendous repercussions in the days to come; the question was, does he want to arm them?.

The collectors are nothing but a lesser menace, a race of insect-like beings full of tech to compensate his own flaws and who trust to much in swarming the enemies with his bio weapons; based too in this damn Eezo tech.

Tor knows that he Eezo tech has an untapped potential that this races has yet to discover; mostly the use of Cores like the ones the Normandy used to create bigger and stronger vessels.

Take the Relay for example; has anyone tried to dissemble one and miniaturize his tech into portable mass relays?, by doing so all the ships of the galaxy would have the possibility of mass jumps into the bigger mass relays instead of depending on safer but less useful FTL flights. If the collectors are a threat and they do come for Omega-4 relay just vaporize the Relay; perhaps destroying the system would be a bit too much but for what he saw there was not much to save into the system.

Anyone could just put a blockade around the Relay and shoot down any ship incoming, or dissemble and study the relay so you block not only the threat but at the same time you study the tech Humanity depends on.

This was no sacred STC tech, so Tor has few problems on dismantle and dissect anything mass effect tech related that fell on his hands; for the moment only _EDI_ has pass the test of the Omnissiah to the machines and became the second Spirit machine Tor has created or meet in the two years he has been fooling around the universe without purpose.

“Fuck” resumed the thoughts of all Zaeed “now I am convinced, I did step on a landmine on this job” muttered Zaeed ending his glass and going for a refill of the already half emptied barrel.

“Laser...but you used solid slug ammo” said Garrus aloud “ah, the vaporizing beam you used to fry Saren husked ass on the citadel” corrected himself.

“My combi-bolter” nod Tor and took out his own bolter of the suitcase revealing the humongous weapon to the already stunned crow.

Shepard and Garrus saw the gun; this time not in the middle of a combat and marveled on the impressive appearance of the weapon; solid, with a canon the size of an abyss and a drum clip; but the secondary cannon of the weapon did call their attention too.

“This is a MK III combi-meltagun Morkai pattern bolter” presented the weapon to the crowd “ I forged the weapon in the fires of the sleeping volcanoes on the Iron Isles of Fenris and it has been with me for the millennia I have been fighting the enemies of the All-father; although having to build every single bullet myself is kind of annoying”.

“What kind of fucking caliber is that thing?” mussed Garrus “ and I don’t see thermal nor cooling systems so...how does it work?”.

“A.75 Caliber self propelled explosive “bolts”, hence the name” laughed Tor gripping the weapon with the easiness of one who has being all life with it.

Zaeed recognizes the same familiarity he had with “Jessy” his own revenant, who paled in comparison to the brutal weapon in front of him.

“The secondary cannon is a meltagun; essentially a fusion weapon” pointed Tor to the cannon with holes on it under the main cannon of the gun.

“What!?” roared Mordin in a very un-mordin manner “Impossible!, the containment of the reactive materials, the residues, the dispersion would be impossible to condensate in a hand weapon”.

“I can only shoot once” nod Tor “ it is a dual injection system of two highly pressurized pyrum-combustible gasses into a molecular state; basically is a heat weapon who will vaporize almost anything almost on his path, pity it has a very short range; fifty meters I would say before losing real effectiveness against highly armored objectives, his supposedly primary objective, it does wonders too against heavy mechs and any other kind of heavy troops”.

Mordin was once again broken and suddenly he blinked in rapid and confused manner with his Salarian quick thinking process being push to the limit.

“Ok, this is new; you make a record Iron wolf, you owned the Doctor with science...I didn’t think it was possible” laughed Shepard with a greedy look on her eyes upon the bolter “so, you didn’t have another of those beauties on the _Fenris_ wouldn’t you?” said too much casually and sweetly.

Not the only one; all military personnel of the ship want to put his hands on one of those.

“No” said Iron wolf and she hung her head dejectedly “ I can't build weapons like this anymore in this universe”.

“Why not?” sounded almost child like Sheppard who would sell a thousand of Batarian souls just for one of those babies; yeah, she hated Batarians, sue her.

“I don’t have the materials needed for it” shrugged Tor.

“Just send a requisition” said Shepard who was hoping to have all her team with those babies as soon as possible “ full priority no matter the cost, no objections” send a glacial glare to Miranda to dare her to say something, the woman was simply there sat in silence and sending a very amused glare to the commander for the childish attitude.

“You don’t understand Shepard, these weapons are made from Adamantium; that metal doesn’t exist in this universe or at last you hadn’t discovered yet” said Tor.

“Fuck!” swore Shepard.

Tor look at his left arm and an omnitool flashed for a second letting him in check the hours; it seems like he has being chatting for too much time and yet there are still dozens of things he could say or tell but it was not time, not real trust between him and his new _Aett;_ it will be a matter of time and battle earned trust.

Tor put all the weapons back in the suitcase; and he did notice the disappointed face of Shepard when she saw the combi-melta back in the suitcase but he didn’t put inside _Redstorm_ , the weapon was firmly strapped in his back, like he usually did during all those battles in the Eye of terror.

“How old are you?” asked suddenly Miranda looking at the man with curiosity “ I hear you talk about years and millennia like it were nothing, I assumed you will be on your thirties at best but now...I don’t know what to think anymore” confess the brunette.

“It would depend, before of after my company entered into the Eye of Terror?” replied Tor.

“I don’t even know what could be the difference” shrugged Miranda “ as I don’t understand what is that Eye of Terror you spoke of”.

“And no more shall be said about it until I feel I can trust enough on you to know” said Tor with brutal honesty that took Miranda a little aback; so many times playing spy games and this astartes just smash trough it like it were nothing “ so just pick one, before or after?”.

“I understand, before then?” asked Miranda.

“When I entered on the Eye of Terror I was one hundred and ninety years old give or take as the calendar of Fenris is different of Terra; nothing compared to how the eldars live two or three thousand years” once again the silence filled the room.

“And after?” asked Shepard.

“By Sacred Terra calendar ten thousand and one years old; by Eye of terror calendar no one gives a fuck in a place where the time can go backwards one day and forward the other” shrugged Tor taking his suit case and high tech backpack but leaving the barrel for Gardner to enjoy what's left from its contents.

“Good night _Aett_ ” nodded Tor saying good bye to his crowd “ all tales must be told but doesn’t mean all tales must be told at once, it will take to much time”.

No one say a word until suddenly Kelly squealed like a little girl and said.

“Ten-thousand years?, its an immortal?”.


	4. Wulfen effect 4

Normandy SR-2/ Elevator/ 2185

 

Tor leaned against the side wall of the elevator with all his equipment at his side; the night has being interesting, unknown to all of them, he has pushed their minds a little, just enough to believe his ludicrous tale more easily and to check their reactions.

In all, his new _Aett_ was better than he thought; all their little secrets looks so irrelevant now; even the xenos were tolerably, a hardened soul of a veteran and the mind of a savant who does all for the science. Being completely honest they were very much like his brothers back in the company; Garrus had the same humor as Sarek and Mordin was like the Magos that taught him in the first place how to be one with the Omnissiah.

And that was the real problem; They were worthy and he didn’t expect that.

Shepard was a strong soul, a brave woman whose mind was one of the strongest he has meet along the years and she has a good soul despite all the hatred and pain the universe has thrown her way.

Damn she just has to be named Lionel; Russ blood, Irony is thick here.

A playful thief who just love the challenge, a soldier to the bone with a bad job, a woman who was crafted for greatness without choice and a man who was living for revenge.

They were a squad of young blood claws who has just pass through the Morkai gate.

 

Citadel/ Human embassy/ 2185

 

Garrus was playing with his omnitool at the side gates of the human embassy where Shepard was having one of the more infuriating moments of her second life as the political movements of the council has just confirmed her worst fears. They had done absolutely nothing for two years, yet he hoped Shepard hasn’t shot anyone of them by now; hologram be dammed the message will be very clear. Still, the turian had his own very difficult moment in front of him, as he had to share guard duty with the astartes and he wasn’t still fully sure the astartes has forgiven him for the slip of tongue he had during his story telling.

As much as he appeared to know about tech and races, he didn’t care a damn about any political related or socially related; he was totally focused on war, anything not related to war was not of his business. Not that he didn’t could empathize with the super soldier but at the same time it was kind of difficult to establish a good relation with the towering giant; in a very similar case when he was traveling with a krogan battle master; without you guts being rip out because you had offense him somehow.

Shepard had asked him to try to make friends with the giant; the wolf man was alone in the universe and after the fucking revelation he put on the table last night ;before they dock at the Citadel; he has thrown all the crew into disarray.

They were traveling along an immortal super soldier of some sorts, who could curb stomp any soldier of this galaxy in close combat, with weapons that lead the kinetic barriers useless and the armor even more useless. Now that he thinks about it, it does sound kind of crazy but who is him to say nothing about craziness; he was traveling with a death Specter in a Cerberus vessel ruled by an AI into a suicide mission into the Collectors home world.

A bit more craziness was not really a serious problem and for what he saw the power both of them add to the group could be a matter of life and death for the mission; if only he would be more cooperative and share some of his tech wonders with them. Ok, not Cerberus, them, and by them he meant most probably Shepard and him, unless Tali, Liara, Wrex or even Kaidan reappeared and join the Normandy.

Garrus noticed how sort was his friend list lately; he gladly would add Kasumi and Mordin to the list and even Jacob as the black skinned human reminds him Shepard a lot, the first time he meet the woman; and alliance officer who has being drag into a complete mess by powers beyond her control. Miranda was another thing altogether; the turian had no real problem with the human woman; in fact she was quite the competent tactician and executive officer but her loyalty to the Delusional man; Spirits, love the new nickname; was kind of disappointing.

About the Iron wolf, well.

Garrus still remembers the first day he meet the monstrous astartes.

Big as Wrex and with a fucking sword, not to mention his bolter, who could overload the shields of Saren husk in a single bullet when they needed automatic fire of the state-of-the-art assault rifles of the moment. The turian didn’t have all the guaranties with him that the astartes would not turn his back at them at any moment and just go by himself as the Crusade against the collectors is something that didn’t affect him at all. After all he wasn’t human anymore; he had no loyalty to his own race and yet the poetry that he recited during the last night still ring on his mind; they are humanity protectors and defenders but once again, defenders against what?.

What kind of war need soldiers like this?, what kind of warfare nightmare is the universe of this astartes?.

He had a ton of fucking questions but after putting the talon on his mouth during yesterday revelations, he wasn’t so sure if he could start a conversation with the wolf man. He was just standing here, with a hardsuit light armor of light gray and a symbol of a wolf over his heart, he carried a compact Mattlock and a knife as long as his arm; but there was nothing; apart for his helmet; who could say the man posses invaluable tech.

Only his wolf shaped helmet; who serve to hide his face to the rest of the world; was the odd piece of tech on him, that and his cybernetic arm hid under the hardsuit and the globes of the light armor.

They were part of the ground team, Miranda and Jacob are on charge of resupplying the Normandy as they had finally docked in a true space port, full of the supplies they need and not the damn slums of Omega who despite having a lot of illegal merchandises was not exactly as good prepared as the Citadel dry docks are, for the necessities of a state-of-the-art super frigate like the Normandy.

And it was a good thing that Shepard erased any Cerberus references on the hull of the ship ;or any other place now that they were at it; they will never dress the logo of Cerberus, they have done enough bullshit around the galaxy for them to even start to trust the Illusive man. Kind of ironic; considering how the same Cerberus is the one paying all the bills of the ship and the crew; no matter what they ask if it was for the good going of the mission you will have it; that was the only good thing of working with them.

Severely deep pockets; Garrus has bought all weapons mods he could and some more that were supposedly still on develop, the only thing he hadn’t put his hand on yet was a custom made Revenant but after seeing the Morkai pattern assault rifle of Tor he was trying to find a way to convince the man to share something of his tech with them.

Ok, not with Cerberus but with the team aboard the Normandy; the ones that will take the mission to the home world of the collectors; a dozen of bolters of him and the collectors will have nothing to do against them.

But the reaction of the man about the Primarch thing...Garrus was one of the best detectives on the Seg-C, may not look like it as all his latest jobs has been more warfare based than detective work but he was the terror of the mercs bands in Omega because he was smart enough to know when and who attack and when retire when the things didn’t look so well. Except that last day of betrayal; oh, he was going to put a bullet into the head of Sidonis, hell yeah he was going to do that some day, he only need to be patience and keep digging, some day he would hit gold and then will be retribution.

“So, we are good?” ask Garrus to the astartes who faced him with that red lenses of him “you know, not going to disembowel me for putting my talon in my mouth”.

“No, I do not keep any grudges against you” shook his helmet Tor “ you are a valuable part of Shepards _Aett_ and the accident yesterday was because of my own ignorance” confessed Tor who seems to be a little bothered for it “ although I knew a lot about your tech and war tactics, the social, cultural and political aspects of the xeno races around me, are a complete mystery”.

“Good to know” chuckled Garrus “ can I ask you a question?, I will not ask anything about tech I promise”.

Tor went silent for a minute and Garrus noticed in his body language than he was having the debate of his life on his own mind; further increasing Garrus belief on his theories about the astartes and the place where he did come from., although, the astartes finally spoke.

“Go ahead” said Tor “ but remember that only those who had earned my trust will be trusted as well, with some of my secrets”.

“I appreciate the cortesy” said Garrus leaning on the wall near the embassy door; his work was to stall Udina if he appeared so only Shepard and Anderson would be present during the meting with the Citadel councilors.

Garrus was convinced that if the things went south the imposing presence of Iron wolf would detract anyone to became violent as he is taller than a krogan and even more wide, even without his power armor as he called it.

“Its being bugging me for a while, but you came from a very xenophobic galaxy isn’t it?” questioned Garrus and he notices how Iron wolf stiffened after hearing that and face Garrus with one red lenses glare that make the turian feel like he is being targeted by a sniper with an ax to grind with him.

The silence was heavy and Garrus start thinking that maybe, he has put the talon on his mouth again.

The astartes grunted once but keep staring with his wolf helmet still debating inside how to answer to that question if he ever wanted to answer the question. The was no doubt about the turian being a detective, he has nailed it with one single question but the answer was much more complicated that the turian could have expected.

“Yes” answered simply Tor “ yes, it is”.

“I supposed it when you never call me or Mordin by our names but our races” sighed Garrus who saw the mission given to him by Sheppard a little more difficult that it already was “ not to mention how you reacted when, well, when I step on a landmine, metaphorically”.

“You and the salarian are _Aett_...perhaps I don’t like it but Shepard give me a purpose and by so, I own her not to follow the most extreme tendencies of my kind over the xenos” simply stated Tor who was kind of impress how easily the turian has deducted his troubles to keep the facade of friendship with the xenos when his first intention was to purge them by fire and bolter.

“Uhrm and that’s the point I don’t get” said Garrus “ I assume that Cerberus will be much more on your line than our little but you hate Cerberus, don’t get me wrong I saw enough of the bullshit they have done to hate the Delusional man guts, but still they are human-supremacist and alien-haters so...”.

“Cerberus is nothing but a bunch of delusional fools who believed on the need some kind of crutch, so humanity could stand at the same level of the rest of the races” almost spited Tor and Garrus somehow felt relieved but at the same time couldn’t but feel a little take aback from the astartes conviction.

“That’s not the Humanity I knew, nor is the humanity I see in this universe, although they are weak and too xeno-lovers for my taste they are struggling to reach his place under the stars and I will always respect such determination and courage ”.

“I don’t think humanity is weak” contradicted Garrus “ in fact I knew a lot of strong humans; captained by a red furred Lioness; who could face anything the galaxy could throw at them” laughed Garrus but he stooped when he saw the tilted to the side head of Tor as he was confused.

“Red furred Lioness?” repeated “ what do you mean by that?”

“You didn’t know?” said Garrus in confusion, it was in all articles and histories about Shepard before and after the Sarens hunt over all the galaxy “the press called her the Lioness of Elysium for how she managed to take down, single handily, a batarian raid over the colony”.

Then happened what Garrus never expected and it was Tor to start laughing like a madman and saying between laughs.

“The irony is damn thick here....the wolf and the lioness.....”.

On another part of the Citadel Miranda was having a very difficult time to focus on her job to resupply the Normandy as her head was filled with a lot of thoughts about what Iron Wolf had brought to the Normandy.

She has been awfully quiet during all digression of Iron wolf about what he was, not that the man has really given them something of real use apart from the bluff that he had a shuttle that defies every single thing the universe know about space travel and weaponry; not to mention he carries a personal missile launcher with a fusion rifle attached to it; something that was theoretically impossible as Mordin was so kind of put into words just to the man to explain it was real and the gun that put the last nail on the coffin of Saren.

Miranda was confused and not only by the strange attitude of the astartes.

His biotics or psyker power or whatever the hell those things were, were the wet dreams of Cerberus made flesh and they were in possession of a hundred years old perfect male supermodel of pointy ears.

She had to fight against the orders of the Illusive man to send a team of Cerberus under the guise of Shadow broker agents or Terra Firma terrorist to try to sweep the astartes now that they have it located. Piece by Piece Miranda feel more and more how all this operation went to hell back and forth; Shepard was a good leader, so far she was sure of it; she was a charismatic leader who had a knack for violence never seen before in the universe, except form the krogan.

And the Iron wolf was no better, damn him and his fucking wolfish smile.

The strange behavior of EDI since the astartes did something with her core and since then EDI has been more lively, if it could be the word used to describe the behavior of the AI.

All the blockades and counter measure programs were okay, so the man didn’t access to the hidden data of Cerberus inside the AI but at the same time all the programming of EDI look like she has been upgraded and for what she knew there was no real updates programmed lately. As second in command, she was supposedly to be in charge of anything that happens in and out the Normandy but now she didn’t feel in control of nothing, and that sensation was deeply scaring her; it was like how her father tailor made her to be the perfect heiress of the Lawson empire, no real chance to say nothing, she was made to be Miranda Lawson the perfect woman.

And now the universe show her how tiny she really was, something that hit their usual self confidence quite hard.

Shaking her head, she turned her face to the data slate in her hands and run some checks on the cargo being uploaded to the Normandy; she contained a sigh as she saw how much weaponry and diverse military utilities has been flooded into the Normandy cargo bay; not that she complained as she knew how difficult the mission to stop the Collectors could be but this was starting to get ridiculous.

Mordin as well, had a ton of exotic requisitions to be put into the Normandy as he was the one in charge of developing some kind of counter measure to repel the swarms the Collectors used to kidnap entire colonies at once but Miranda somehow suspected that the last batch was more on the lines of fusion experimentation after the big shock the salarian suffered when Iron wolf showed him his big fucking combi-bolter and throw years of fusion theory out of the window.

She had never seen the old salarian so shocked and they were talking about an ex-STG veteran agent with several and very dangerous high missions on his back and a lot of medals and scars to prove his expertize. Tech, biology, whatever you choose is always fucking something else; still Iron wolf claimed to not being human anymore but she still couldn’t access to the medical data of him, she has asked Chakwas if she had already done a medical check up on them and the old doctor said yes, but when Miranda tried to access to the data they didn’t appear on the vessel database.

The Iron wolf has retired the data from her grasp even before she could put a hand on them; as the agent of the Illusive man she was obeying orders and send him all the data she could found about the recently found astartes. It was just fortunate that she could send the discovery of the cybernetic spine of the astartes, a medical miracle that even today could only be accomplish with a very careful surgery and never without any kind of secondary effects not to mention being it combat-enhanced, as it shielded one of the vulnerable spots of the human body effectively.

For the moment she was covering her bases but soon she will have nothing to show to the increasingly greed TIM; when she sent the pictures of the bolter and the sword she could picture TIM drooling at the chance of getting the blueprints of the weapon and arm all the Cerberus troops with copies of that one handed missile launcher and fusion beam, all in one single piece.

There was a lot of agendas at play here, and what Miranda hated even more than being without control, is being blind about any situation she could be stepping into, and all this mission was starting to became in a big cluster fuck for her, as she was the most evident Cerberus scapegoat. Jacob was carrying a dozen of crates full of thermal clips for the guns aboard the ship; she knew the team was still short of members and they still need a solution about the swarms; the addition of Iron wolf has been a godsend indeed, but at the same time the consequences that he could bring to the galaxy make his head spin.

Miranda really hoped the Commander know what she was doing when she welcome aboard the dimensional refuge; she was feeling like she was making story as every single step they made in their crusade has changing the galaxy and now that the commander was butting heads with the Citadel council it was among the previsions that she could be put back into Specter service, which could be a very good thing for their mission.

Miranda checked the list; she hated this storage duties; but then she realized that there was requisition being made by Iron wolf, a pair of storage crates heavily secured and already paid out of Cerberus funding of the mission so they don’t know what the man has brought to the ship. Full of doubts, she glared Jacob who shrugged without an actual idea and light his omnitool to explain her that he has already check it out and didn’t found anything suspicious beyond the fact that the crate was for an astartes from another dimension.

Sighing, Miranda check all the supplies that were ready and loaded and let Jacob end the job of putting the cargo on their respective destinies on the Normandy; it looks like all the people aboard was enjoying the ungodly amount of funding the mission had, as all of them pick up the latest state-of-the-art pieces available in the market. From Omnitools to mods for weapon and armor passing through all kind of replacements for the different systems of the Normandy; it was kind of impressive how all the only things they needed to create such a wonder like the Normandy was to say the crew aboard that they have free budget; Miranda had never seen some things the crew has put together, even when she was still reconstructing the indomitable Lioness of Elysium.

Moving to the transport terminal, she called one aerocab to be at time in the embassies; perhaps she couldn’t be present during the meeting with the councilors as Shepard has told her that bringing an operative of Cerberus to the meeting, was directly suicidal on the best case, giving even more ammo to the fuckers to sink her mission by docking the Normandy like they did before under charges of terrorism and Cerberus collaboration.

And talking about that; when she found out there has been reports about how she has been collaborating with Cerberus for months already, she has no doubt that she will be ready to grind an ax with her but it was not her job, not her responsibilities. She was the one who had to bring her back from the death, not using her as propaganda for Cerberus; a propaganda no one was buying except perhaps the previously said councilors, and only as political ammo for shooting down Shepard an any of her claims about the Collectors.

The didn’t want to see the truth because it will be much of a hassle to deal with it; being happily ignorant was a much better thing, ignorance is a bliss; after all that was the real reason of the Specters, they don’t have to answer to anyone but the Council and that gives them free rein to do whatever the hell they want and just sweep under the carpet anything too much sensitive.

Miranda took seat on one of the cabs and let the automatic machine to drive her to the embassies; it could be interesting to see how the commander would react to the situation and how she would act afterward.

She was not the only one who was mussing about the reactions of Shepard but she was much more certain of what will be the results and the way the universe will react to the pivotal point of fate that the red head commander was, despite her own doubts and fears. Miranda on the other hand, right now was very tired, disappointed, frustrated and angered.

Shepard was seething her teeth at the councilors, who had just say the last words she wanted to hear.

But what really wounded her worst was the betrayal of Anderson.

Humanity ambassador Anderson was her commanding officer on the Normandy, he let her first baby the Normandy SR-1 to hunt Saren and he took the blame when they had to pull a nasty stunt to release the ship before they hit Ios and the Mu relay.

After the smoke cleared and they could do some cleaning after the geth invasion of the Citadel, she even put Anderson as human ambassador; they joined the council and for two damn years on where she has been death, they have done utterly nothing, nada, zero and that was making Shepard felling utterly betrayed. Not to mention in the verge of assaulting all the other embassies and put some sense into the thick skull head of this cretins by the good old methods of engraving the words with a serrated knife, maybe Garrus had one or perhaps Iron wolf could use his sparking sword to make the point even more clear.

“You have to be kidding me” Shepard massaged her forehead trying to calm herself before he made the Citadel burn like the political cesspit it really is “two wonderful years wasted because you didn’t want to recognize the threat?” asked Shepard in disbelief to the holograms.

“We see no reason to start a massive panic around the Citadel space” said the salarian councilor.

“Ok, the big squid ship that almost kills you wasn’t real then?” smirked Shepard in a smile that would make a yahg run for his mommy “ the one who stood at the fucking top of the tower like a freaking king-kong and we need a complete fucking fleet to take down, After they saved your asses from a geth fleet?”.

“That was a very advanced geth dreadnought” said dismissively Spartarus, the most anti human politic that the turian could have sent to the council, the one who torpedoed almost any attempt the human could do to join the galaxy community.

“Geth tech? Seriously?, that’s the best excuse you had come with?” asked a surprised Shepard about how voluntarily blind the council could be “has anyone of you see nothing similar to Sovereign during all these years or any fucking geth fleet for the case?, it was no geth; if it was geth it wouldn’t need any dammed herald like Saren and they will have build dozens of those and not just only one, dammit!”.

“Unfortunately we didn’t found anything that could verify that Shepard” said the Salarian “ the Sovereign was a very advanced geth dreadnought that was so beaten up, that nothing could be salvage of them”.

“Did any of you talk to Virgil?” said Shepard in frankly disbelief about how easy these councilors could lie themselves “ you know the Protean beacon in Ios; for fucks sake I delivered you all the conversation via Omnitool, Seg-C officer Vakarian and Lieutenant Alenko record all the damn thing and send it to the Specters archives!”.

“We found a broken an irrecoverable beacon in Ios” nodded the Salarian “ but as the files you claim there is nothing of sorts in the Specters files”.

“What?!” exclaimed Shepard “ I wrote a detailed four hundred pages, report over all the Ios mission with vids, live data of Ios and all I could scan with all the bloody omnitools I have around me and now you are telling me that you have lost it?!”.

An awkward silence pregnant the room as all the councilors had no idea about what she was talking about; there was no such report in the Specter files; if there was, all this conversation will be completely different.

“This is getting out of point” started Tevos the asari councilor “ we are not here to discuss your claims about these Reapers but to listen to your explanations about you being an agent of Cerberus”.

“This is nuts” shook her head Shepard.

“She is right Councilors” interjected Anderson “Shepard is the one who saved the Citadel; she should be honored not interrogated like a damn criminal”.

“Thanks Anderson but I think I could manage myself” the ice on the voice of Shepard take a little aback Anderson “ after all I have been two years death without no one even looking for my damn body” added with a very intentional stare to her old captain who look hurt and ashamed at the same time.

“Ok, let review some facts will ya?” turned with a sick smile on her face to the councilors “ first of all I have been two years dead; as simply as that; I awoke in a forgotten lab I don’t even know where and that was a week ago; for what I know I do not wear any symbol of any allegiance” remarked and Anderson flinched behind her “nor does my new and shiny baby the Normandy SR-2 so...who am I working for you say?”.

“There are reports and proofs of you working for Cerberus for four months” said the salarian councilor “you have been seen in several Cerberus operations all along the Citadel space”.

“Impossible” negated Mordin.

“Shepard scars too recently, to fresh, to be on active for four months” Mordin tapped his omnitool a little “ Shepard medical scans conclusive, forced awakening before full recovery; estimated time pair of weeks maximum; impossible to being on active duty for so long without any scar” the old doctor took a deep breath before shutting down his omnitool and face the councilors.

“Collector threat real, vid real, No Cerberus scam this time; who check data validation?; STG low his standard as I retired” muttered under his breath the salarian as he was very proud of his analytic skills and being in front of such sloppy work disgusted him to no end.

“So, you hear the veteran STG agent who is working under My command, along another alien” smiled Shepard like the lioness she were and the councilors feel grateful not being there in person “ now, could anyone of you explain me how it is possible to me to be working for Cerberus AND having aliens aboard one of the state of the art turian-human frigates on the galaxy?”.

A very dense silence filled the room as all the councilors turned for a second to a place out of hologram range and ask to confirm the information; the salarian did look very interested in the border of his formal robes; Mordin has weight inside the salarian government despite being retired.

And alien working for Cerberus?, impossible, that was the bluff she has been keeping under her sleeve to slap in their noses all this time along; she really did work for Cerberus, or at last in a sense; in reality it was her mission to exterminate the cockroach that killed her and destroyed her baby; they paid the bills, nothing more.

“There is another point we have to discuss” said Anderson “ now that the Commander is back, I vote for giving her back her Specter status”.

“Are you insane?” protested Sparatus “ she was dead and now she is working for Cerberus, no matter how good her cover may appear, what do you think will happen if we support her?, we will be supporting Cerberus!”.

“Same old song, different tune” chuckled Shepard, god she hated the turian, why he could not be like Garrus?; that would be much better on the long run; Primus Vakarian, that would be hilarious.

“Perhaps we could reach an agreement” said Anderson “give back Shepard status as Specter but limit it to the Terminus Systems as they are the zones where the Collectors are attacking the human colonies”.

“That could be reasonable” said the salarian councilor nodding in agreement.

“Hrumph, as long as she didn’t make the things harder than they are” snorted Sparatus.

“It's an honor she deserves, she saved our lives after all” said Tevos agreeing to the reinstatement of Shepard as Specter once again..

“Thank you councilors that will be all” said Anderson who knows that Shepard was eying the council like she was taking the sizes for a coffin.

And considering what she did two years ago: two years on where the had to choose to send eight ships in defend of the overwhelmed Ascension of Destiny or send them after Sovereign and cut the looses the fleet suffered during the battle against the Reaper; it was not a real surprise that now the woman was considering such order a very grave mistake. Anderson shuddered to think that could happen if Shepard went rogue; she had a lot of supporters even in his death; she was popular beyond belief, if she wanted she could have started a human-supremacist revolution and war and now even more that she was under Cerberus banner.

However, she raised an eyebrow and Anderson follow her gaze to see the still present hologram of the asari diplomat Tevos who was asking Shepard to deliver a message for her to one of her crew.

“I was informed that the Howler was among your crew” was saying the woman “ and the consort ask you to bring him to her chambers as; and I quote literally; “The child of Fenris and I have something to discuss””.

“Ah, thanks councilor” said Shepard and the asari vanish.

“Shepard I...” started Anderson and he shut immediately when he saw the glare on her blue eyes.

“Don’t care Anderson” replied Shepard “ I don’t really care, we are past beyond the point on where whatever you are going to say matter anymore; I was dead for two years and when I get back the only ones who has done shit are the fucking Cerberus”.

“I failed you Shepard” admitted Anderson “ I am no politic, I am a soldier and this was not a war I was ready for; the council, the alliance, no one wanted to believe, no one wanted to awoke from his sweet dreams of peace, the geth were a very convenient excuse”.

“It doesn’t matter anymore” shook her head Shepard, she was the one who choose Anderson for this job but it seems she had made another failure; this was starting to grate on her nerves “ I had a mission now, a mission who really matters and...”

A loud high pitched scream filled the halls outside the embassy and all the presents inside the room whip-lash their faces to the closed door of the embassy; but after a few seconds of the scream getting far all the presents raise an eyebrow until Anderson noticed something.

“That was Udinas voice, isn’t it?” mussed in loud voice.

Shepard did some quick guessing, considering the two at the other side of the door she smiled widely and start running to the door, opening it and founding Garrus laughing his ass off; when he saw her he pointed at the stairs of the embassies where a confused Miranda was staring with a raise eyebrow to a towering Iron wolf dragging Udina by the neck to the balconies and in impressive feat of strength tossing the man twelve meters in the air until he landed in the waters of the Presidium.

Shepard couldn’t suppress it and start laughing too along Garrus leaning on the blue armor of the turian as Iron wolf pass near the confused Miranda, who follow after him until they see the laughing pair at the entrance of the Embassy and a widely smiling Anderson.

“Priceless” raised the turian his face helping Shepard to recover a little too after the laughs “Spirits, that has been priceless; you should have seen his face when Iron wolf grip him by the neck and start dragging him”.

“Dammit Iron wolf, you could have waited a minute” said Shepard still between laughs.

“I take the interview went well” interjected Miranda.

“No” shook his head Anderson, who look to Miranda as he has seen her before but couldn’t put his finger on where “ but at last, Specter Shepard is back to business, more or less”.

Shepard snorted about that last remark and explained to Miranda.

“I have my Specter status back but only applies to Terminus systems” Shepard leaned to Garrus to recover from the much needed laughs “ and we know Citadel space has nothing to say into the Terminus systems”.

“Still, is a welcome help” shrugged the woman who has already foreseen such outcome but the flying ambassador was not on her plannings “the part on where you ask Iron wolf to send flying the ambassador was needed by the way?, it could make him even more hunted across the galaxy”.

“I order him nothing” said Shepard with a smile “ he did it all by himself”.

“Is not like I don’t appreciate the gesture, I really wanted to do exactly that from time to time” said Anderson who was enjoying the view of the other ambassador being rescued by a Seg-C aerocar.

“You said No bolter” shrugged Iron wolf under his helmet.

“I said no weapons” pointed up Shepard.

“I was about to enter into a lair of politicians and Xenos” grumbled the man “ Fenris would become a tropical paradise before I enter in such a place unarmed”.

“Well at last you didn’t bring in your big fucking crimson broadsword” shrugged the woman, enough difficult it has been to drag the astartes to the ride into the Citadel, as she wanted to test the same suspicious Garrus has just probed when she was butting heads with the Council.

“Don’t remind me, if I had _Redstorm_ your...pet” pointed with his thumb to the very soaked and miserable Udina “will be nothing but a smear on the walls by now”.

“So this is one of your new crew mates eh?” said Anderson “ Captain Anderson Alliance military now trapped playing politicians” extended his hand to the wolf shaped helmet man who was sure he has seen somewhere before, not to mention the man was long past eight feet tall.

“Iron wolf” replied Tor; shaking his hand.

He was telepathic enough to know presenting himself fully to this man could be a very big mistake, as he was a good soldier who was loyal to the alliance but there was a hint of sadness in her mind about him and Shepard; he would have to seek it later.

“Now Anderson if you excuse us” said Shepard who wanted to be out of this lair of politicians as Iron wolf has put it; as soon as possible “we still have some errands to run and you know save the universe, again...”.

“Don’t need to convince me Shepard” hung his shoulders in defeat Anderson “ I will be here if you need me, just give me the opportunity to make amends”.

“We will see” said Shepard and carry the rest of her team with her as Anderson closed the doors of the embassy.

Inside, the very tired man went for his hidden reserve of whiskey; he need a drink now, he has failed Shepard so much was true; he has tried to convince the universe that the Reapers threat was real and they need to be prepared but now after two years of political game he was convinced that the universe need a fire to awoke of his fucking leniency, hope it would not to late.

Shepard moved to the transport console and start picking up one cab as she saw pass the Seg-C patrol with the froze and soaked Udina flashing him teeth filled smile that promised a lot of pain if he was stupid enough to do anything. The man shivered and he just tried to convinced himself that it was just the sudden dive in the frozen waters, yeah lets go with that.

“The Normandy is ready to depart commander” informed Miranda as she pass Shepard a data slate “ we are charged and ready to move to the terminus system to pick up the next one for your team”.

Shepard read the contents of the data slate and smiled; she could say a ton of things about Miranda but she was truly a competent CEO when she wanted and her leadership capabilities were good too; pity her Ice queen attitude but perhaps the wolf at her side could soften that side of her...if he softens himself too.

She would have to ask Garrus later how the guard with the towering astartes has been; she trusted the detective skills of Garrus as he was one ex-Seg-C and those skills are what make them one of the best comrades she could have ever hoped to have.

“Thanks Miranda, good work, but we have another errand to do before we depart” shook her head Shepard “ and it involves our big friend here” punched the arm of the astartes, who just tilted his head to the side and she couldn’t suppress an inner giggle as he suddenly saw a big armored husky at her side.

“You have been requested by the consort” explained Shepard to the astartes and before the man could say no she continued “ and I quote her, The child of Fenris and I have things to discuss”.

“This consort of yours has picked my interest Shepard” said the Iron wolf “but who is this consort?, I didn’t remember any military rank with that name in any culture”.

Miranda glare cautiously the astartes before she asked in a very polite and cautious manner.

“Excuse me Iron wolf but, when you investigated all the races in this universe, did you only narrowed your search to technology and military matters?”.

“Along some cultural references for better understanding the context but yes, you could say so” turned his red lenses to Miranda who gulped down on her mind.

She tried to ask for help to Shepard but the damn woman and the turian had already made a step back letting Miranda took the spotlight. She swore ravenous vengeance on the pair for this, and tried to explain what the consort are supposed to be in the Citadel. That explanation took Miranda five very embarrassing minutes as she tried to explain it to the astartes without entering in the matter of how works the reproductive system of the asari and how she has managed to became quite the celebrity.

“Asari” grunted the astartes “ as devious as the eldars and as crafty as demon, no matter how hard they try to hid her real face”.

“Ey, a very good friend of mine is an asari, mind you” pouted Shepard feeling the obligation of defense Liara “ and she is not anything like that”.

A loud snarl was the only thing that went of the helmet of the astartes before the cab reach their position and Shepard started to wonder how he was going to fit the massive form of the man in the tiny passenger space inside the cab.

“This going to be a tight fit” mussed her before she realized that metaphor was utterly inappropriate and hid her face who was starting to turn as red as her hair.

Fortunately only Garrus noticed her tongue slip and just chuckled silently taking the place of the driver and allowing Shepard to take the seat of the copilot, leaving Miranda and Iron wolf trying to see how both of them could enter in the back seat.

“Shepard, my boot is bigger that this thing” announced Iron wolf staring at the tiny passenger seat in front of him; even a krogan would find difficult to enter and he was bigger than a krogan.

“Sorry big guy” chirped the woman “ It will only be for a few minutes come on” pouted the woman as Iron wolf growled again and tried to enter in the place.

Miranda had another very embarrassing travel as she was almost glued to the gigantic form of the Iron wolf on the backseat; the only thing worst would be to be seat on his lap; fortunately the man seems as discomforted as her. And it provoked that a very deep part of Miranda huffed; she was one of the most beautiful women in the galaxy; lot of men would have killed for this and the astartes just look as mortified as her. Odd, now that she thought about it; he was one of the most impressive males on the galaxy and yet he hadn’t manifested any interested not in women, not in men; nothing.

Another mussing for another time as she glared icily to the giggling Commander in the front seat; the woman was very, very amused for their incommode position; she was going to make the woman pay, she still doesn’t know how but she will make her pay...oh, that was no doubt for that.

A sudden bump in the car throw her at the arms of the astartes who caught her with easiness without even looking, and he has caught her with his flesh arm as his cybernetic one could have harmed her.

“Sorry back there” said the turian with mirth in his voice “ we are now in front of the consorts quarters” informed before landing the cab near a bored looking human with the pink and white classical dress of the consort chambers.

 

Citadel/ Consort Chambers/ 2185

 

Soon all of them were out of the vehicle must to the relief of Iron wolf who stretched his muscles with relief.

The woman at the entrance blinked a pair of times before she notices the grinning human in front of her dress in a blue hardsuit without any symbols on it.

“The consort has called us” said Shepard “ tell her Shepard and the Child of Fenris are here, she will understand”.

The woman didn’t understand but service under Shaiera had this kind of moments form time to time so the best was to check just in case the supposedly appointment was telling the truth and let the boss clear any misunderstanding could have been produced.

“Give a moment please” said the woman and tap on her omnitool to secure a line with the chambers.

Iron wolf walked near the commander and look at the pinky dress of the woman; he has seen similar things back in the Imperium but soon he forgot about it and turned his gaze to the Presidium; during the guard with the turian he has use part of the autosenses of the helmet to help him identify smells and categorize them as form of passing the time before the turian; Vakarian; had made him the question that pretty much resumed all his inner conflict.

This was a universe with hope and possible amicable relationship with friendly xenos.

His brothers would have already disemboweled him just for having such thoughts; yet he has survived for two damn years, in a place where a war was nothing more than glorified skirmishes, and now Shepard has give him purpose back but it was not enough. He knows that he was different that the most extreme of his battle brothers of other chapters like the Imperial fists or the Black Templars but still he was a proud son of Fenris, he has been offered a place in a war but to participate in that war, he would have to trust in an _Aett_ who had xenos among his warriors.

Tor didn’t doubt about the capabilities of them; despite being part of a universe who will shudder even at the sight of full fledged battleship like the ones the Sixth legion used to travel to their destinies during the Great Crusade; but it was not the real problem, the real problem, was his own and powerful advanced tech. Or at last in some areas, the kinetic barriers would have been a godsend for the Imperial guards of the Crusade and the medigel would have save millions of lives of courageous soldiers and brothers.

They didn’t even have lasguns, the most basic of the weapons of the Imperium; even the most retarded artisan of the Mechanicum was able to repair or even build a lasgun and this universe was so engrossed in the damn eezo that they cut any other path and by so they became dependent of that same technology when it was clear that it was very limited.

And don’t make him talk about the ships, Russ bones, those toys will be utterly obliterated even if the attackers are just a bunch of greenskins in one of their blasted space hulks with motors; not to mention all the problems a single _Abominable intelligence_ ship caused, even at the center of his galactic site of power. What would have done against a dozen of them?, he saw the vids; only one almost crushed all the naval defense force of the citadel along the _Ascension of Destiny_ , the biggest dreadnought class vessel they had. Just a single battle-cruiser, a single Overlord class battle cruiser and he would conquer the damn galaxy before they can even blink.

And there rested the problem, he could build, construct, and in general made the humanity really prepared for a true war, but in this universe every single secret he gives to the Alliance; as the humanity military organization; would end in xenos hands by the end of the month, as the politicians and the same high commands would trade it for who knows what kind of favors or another kind of payment.

To see the secret of the Omnissiah defiled by Xenos hands disturbed the soul of Tor, deeply.

Ten thousand years fighting the most cruel war in the universe and the innumerable divergences he did to keep his battle brothers gear in shape, not to mention the abominations he seen the Mechanicus Oscurus perform on the sacred technology of the Omnissiah; had already lessened the impact any modification on the sacred technology could have done in his soul. But one thing was to mess with the sacred designs; All-father be bless, been there done that in more occasions that he would like to count; and another all different was to deliver that same tech to greedy and humanity haters Xenos.

He was convinced that this galaxy xenos will have no problem on stealing and using human tech if it reports them a benefit.

“Shaira said that only you Commander and the Child of Fenris are allowed to enter” said the receptionist after a quick talk by her communicator “ this way please”.

Shepard rose an eyebrow but Iron wolf take point and followed the woman without any care in the world; if it was an ambush he was in the perfect mood for battle as it was the only thing that quell his doubts and fears. Shepard has promised him a war but so far nothing of the sort has happened and a good old ambush where he could rip his enemies into pieces will be perfect right now. Unfortunately what he saw was all but the ambush he wished for; instead in front of his lenses were a dozen of xenos and some human females chatting, playing games and in general just being there being civilized.

This was supposed to be a glorified brothel of some sorts isn’t it?, does the fucking xenos of this galaxy didn’t even know how to take a female and make her theirs?.

Granted, Tor lost that capability as soon as he became one of the astartes, but he was a man of Fenris before that, and he was pretty sure there was still a tribe with his name on Fenris among the Iron isles, as he fathered dozens of Fenrisians with all the maidens he could, before traveling to Mars and became an Iron priest.

He groaned at the image in front of him and pass next to the different pairs; who by the way were looking with curiosity to the gigantic whatever it was who was passing at their sides; following the guide into the chambers of the said consort.

Shepard was carefully staring at the reaction of the astartes and how has him react the site on where he has been invited; first of all Shepard has his suspicious about the astartes and how he reacted to the different aliens and humans around him. Honestly?, it was a relief the man hated Cerberus so hard, if not TIM will be throwing a party by now as the astartes was exactly all he wanted and more.

Let's see...

Human highly modified so it could curb stomp a krogan?, check; Weapons that could make any competent soldier sell their mothers souls for it?, check; Xenophobia?, most probably; More military experience than all the high command of the Alliance combined?, check.

In resume, they could have been very fucked if Iron wolf had turned into a Cerberus member.

Thanks whatever gods out there; that the man isn’t like that, at last for now, so Shepard and Garrus could help him became more tolerant and alien friendly to other spices before the hell broke loose. Leaving apart the fucking ace the man was for her mission against the collectors, she only need him to see that a galaxy united had more chances against the Reapers...and now that she give a second thought about it, has anyone debrief Iron wolf about the Reapers and how they are going to collect every single advanced race in the universe?.

Shepard has the fearful suspicion that no one has say a word to the astartes about the Reapers.

Fucking great.

They reached the doors of Shaieras private chambers and the guide let them pass; inside the room, said consort was looking at a big window the scene of the Presidium.

Shaiera was one of the most beautiful asari on the galaxy and not only for her stunning looks, as even in her matriarch state she kept all the fresh appearance of a maiden; but because her charisma, that reach all races, no matter origin or species and capability of charm even the most hardcore hearts in the Citadel with her presence. Shepard felt a tingle of girly jealousy in the deepest corners of her mind when she saw the hourglass figure of the consort enveloped in the same white and pink dress the rest of the female on her chambers wear, but in her case it only makes her even more alluring as the fabric of the dress only hugged her womanly forms perfectly.

The Iron wolf, on the other hand, had seen better.

Constant warfare during thousands of years against the lust incarnate, tend to make displays like that, much less impressive that they would have been usually; and he was much more interested in a specific kind of art the xenos had on her chamber.

He stepped on the chambers and moved directly to the fur hanged in a side of the room, completely ignoring the asari on the window, much to the shock of Shepard who recovered from his eying of the gorgeous asari and moved in too, just to see better what has caught the attention of the Iron wolf like that.

The wolf took the gloves off and pas a hand over the black fur that hanged on the wall of the chambers before get out his helmet too and smell deeply the fur in a very focused manner, to say Shepard was a bit disturbed by his reaction will be an understatement but there was something she has never seen in Iron wolf that prevented her to say nothing.

Soon the temperature of the room feel several grades and a thin layer of ice formed on the glass of the window and the metal on Shepards weapons; she knew the origin of the ominous aura, she has felt before in Iron wolf, it was the distinct use of his psy powers that drains the warm from anyplace on where they stand, when they unleash their powers and if that’s the case it means that Iron wolf was seriously pissed off.

And the voice loomed again, so cold that VI on Shepard armor believed they were getting close to a level 1 frost danger environment and start activating the protocols but Shepard didn’t note a shit as her hand was already on the handle of her Carnifex; her instincts screamed her to run or fight, preferably the former more than the latter.

“How are you in possession of this fur, Xeno?” the ice on the voice of Tor was chilling and filled with barely contained rage.

“A god gifted it to me” said Shaiera turning her face to the two of them with a tiny nostalgic smile on her light azure lips, she shivered for the sudden coldness of the room “ the only male I ever loved, Son of Fenris”.

“ **Dont lie to me, xeno scum!”** roared Tor and the room trembled under the fury of the wolf whose face was turning more and more feral by the moment.

His fangs were already long enough to provoke nightmares, so was his black mane over where ice and sparks crackling, his globes were starting to be ripped by his growling claws.

“Iron wolf!” shouted Shepard “calm down already, you are making the place tremble!” tried to reason Shepard with the man but a glare of those feral yellow eyes; so fill with rage and sadness make her pause.

“You don’t understand Shepard, she posses the Thunderwolf mantle of my Jarl, my King, my brother and Primarch of the Sixth legion” explained the astartes taking a more crouched and predatory pose; ready to strike and rip the throat of the consort; Matriarch of great biotic power be dammed.

“Leman Russ, the second found Primarch, who only join his father after he bested him in combat” whispered the consort with a very distant gaze on her eyes “Wolf king of Fenris, Primarch of the Vlka Fenryka and devoted son of the All-father, the Emperor of the mankind”.

The confusion on the eyes of Iron wolf was clear; she couldn’t know those things, only one who has meet the demigod could have say those things and that was impossible. The Primarch disappeared and traveled during his last days, as the Emperor itself gave him a vision that he would have to accomplish; since those days the Space wolves, as the legion was now since the splitting of the original legions into chapters by the hand of Guilliman; has been looking for their father. Russ itself traveled to the Eye of Terror and led his 13th company into a crusade that still nowadays was in progress, but since he took half of the company with him; no one ever knew nothing of the demigod expect the quiet whisper every Wulfen hear from time to time.

“ _It is not the wolf-time, not yet, but it is time to kill the enemies of the All-father”_ was a whisper that a lot of Wulfen ear in the first days of his transformation _._

“How?” demanded Tor “ how is it possible, Xeno, to you to know those things?; only one who has won the trust and confidence of my Jarl, could know those truths”.

“I told you Iron wolf; Tor Iron wolf, honored blacksmith of the Vlka Fenryka, father of the Iron wolf tribe and...” the consort fell a hand of iron grab her throat and almost crush her neck under a claw of iron.

Shepard blinked as she didn’t even saw the astartes moving, dammit, how was possible for something so big to move so fast?, she reacted too and using her biotics to made herself faster, run to the side of the astartes who had firmly grab the consort by the neck and just with a tiny pull will rip her throat with those claw-like nails that had pierced trough the hardsuit gloves.

Putting the cannon of the expanded Carnifex at one side of the face of Tor she said in all the commanding tone she can muster at that moment:

“Back Iron wolf!” ordered “ you are not going to kill the consort for fucks sake, what's wrong with you astartes?!”

Iron wolf stared at the cannon of the weapon and directly ignored it much to the surprise and shock of Shepard who couldn’t believe it.

“Cut your tongue, Xeno” growled the astartes like a big and angry wolf “ the secrets of Iron wolf are only of Iron wolf” once again the voice that could hit deep in the soul of anyone hearing it.

“Shaira?!” sounded a voice trough the communicator of the room “are you alright?, what the hell was that?!” sounded alarmed the voice of the personal assistant of the consort.

“Its alright Villa” answered the consort with a bit of difficulty by the claw on her swan neck “my appointment hasn’t taken well the disturbing notices I had for him”.

“Should I call the Seg-C?” asked the woman doubting.

“No, that won't be necessary” replied Shaiera “ don’t worry Villa, I expected my appointment to react like that; in fact I will be sorely disappointed if he didn’t react that way” the communication cut as the metal hand of Tor touched the omnitool of the consort neutralizing it like it was nothing instead of the last state-of-the-art piece of hardware on the market.

“ **The truth Xeno** ” growl Tor and both Shaiera and Shepard had serious problems to suppress a shiver as it was the sound of a beast and not the sound a human vocal cord could produce “ no more lies, no more beating around the bush, I want the truth”.

“See in my mind” whispered the consort “ there is a memory planted here for you, a memory that only a son of Fenris with the gift of the runes, could unlock”.

Tor growled and look into the eyes of the asari, as the eyes of her turned black exactly when they entered into the melding state that indicates the deep mind fusion they have sharing but it could lend an asari to be pregnant with the child Iron wolf; a thought that make Shepard shuddered as an asari natural biotic child with the physical power of an astartes will be a monster to behold. Shepard took out the pistol from the head of the wolfman as a layer of ice was forming on the surface of the weapon and freezing the damn thing on her hand; fortunately the gloves were already on cold temperatures' protocol. If her pistol was like that, the mind of both of them much be a freezer by now, mussed the commander who was as confused as hell with the development in front of her.

Suddenly Tor let go the consort, releasing her from his grip; the woman feel and her legs failed her, kneeling in front of the Iron wolf who stood there eyes closed.

Still, Shepard noticed how the more feral traits of the Iron wolf were retreating to the more human and yet wolfish traits of his strong face but an almost invisible tear fell from his left eye before he put back his helmet on his face with the drilling sound of the hardware connecting to his cybernetic spine.

“I...” said Iron wolf to the consort as she was massaging her shore throat still kneeling for the brutal mind meld she has performed with Iron wolf “ have to thank you for giving me hope again consort, I saw you really loved the Wolf-King and for that I will let his memory intact in your head; I have only taken the part concerned with me; the rest of the memories yours”.

“Thank you Son of Fenris” mussed the woman a bit raspy “thank you for letting me keep the memories of my loved one”.

Iron wolf turned his back and moved to abandon the chambers of the consort but before he could reach the door, he felt a sudden pull on his flesh arm and it was strong enough to turn around his body and be at the receiving end of a biotic charged straight to his chest that send him backwards, the impact would have turned any other person ribs into jelly but between the hardsuit; whose chest piece was cracked by the brutal impact; and the reinforced skeletal structure, Tor was only slightly confused and stunned.

“Are you fucking out your mind?!” shouted Shepard at him poking his destroyed chest piece with a finger “what the hell is wrong with you astartes?, you cannot go threatening people like that like there was no consequence for fuck sake!”.

Tor raised an eyebrow at the woman, but under his helmet she couldn’t see his surprised face, she didn’t know just the feat of raw strength she has accomplished, this Jane Lionel Shep....Tor noticed then how fucking thick the irony was in this universe and start laughing; a deep, honest and relieved laughter that resonated in all the chambers like a thunder.

“What the hell is so funny you crazy giant?!” keep shouting the woman at him and charged another dose of reality on her fist ready to put some common sense in the thick head of the fucking astartes but as soon as she launched another straight to his chest he grab the biotic charged punch with his flesh hand stooping it with a grunt.

“Only once Shepard” was still laughing Tor “ only once; never try another sucker punch like that on me, Lioness” advertized Iron wolf but the effect fell a little off, as he was still laughing at a joke only him could understand, much to the anger and frustration of Shepard who insisted on make her point clear.

“I will do all the times are needed wolfy, to put some damn sense into that cybernetic skull of yours” Shepard tried to move her fist out of his hand but the grip of his hand was made of iron and they were an stalemate “I don’t know how the things are doing in your fucking universe but here we don’t kill everything in sight just because they are aliens”.

Tor just laughed more and let Shepard go off his hand before exiting the chambers of the still kneel Shaiera as she nursed not only her throat but her memories of the Primarch of the Legion of Tor. The emotions he has felt on the deeps of the mind of the asari were real; he has dig deep on her mind without care, ripping apart all veils and deceptions that could make the memory false or altered to fulfill a role in any kind of xenos conspiracy but instead she has found how this xenos female, really fell in love with Leman Russ and what the Primach wanted to tell him and why.

For the All-father Jarl, this is going to be messy...but that was the way of Fenris.

He took the wolf fur of the wall and throw it over his shoulder as a trophy; this was a relic of his legion and now it will be at the hand of the Vlka Fenryka once again, the Mantle of the Blackmane was a right Tor didn’t really believe he has earned but his Jarl has ordered him to recover and wear for the enemies of Tor know the fury of the Wulfen.

“Not the place, not the moment to have this discussion Shepard” smirked Tor under his helmet enjoying greatly the frustration of the woman “ we have nothing more to do here”.

Tor leaded the exit of the chambers as a very worried woman entered in the places after them and shouted seeing the asari consort on her kneels and with a tear falling from her eyes; no doubt Tor and Shepard had left quite the impression on the chambers and she was more than sure that somehow this was going to get back to them to bite her ass at some point. As soon as they exited the place, both Garrus and Miranda noticed the daggers Shepard eyes were throwing to the astartes at her side and the crackled state of his hardsuit not to mention the fur pelt that hanged from his shoulder, Garrus was sure there was quite a history after that, and he took good mental note to ask about what the hell has happened inside to Shepard when she calmed enough as she was in the mood to skin a krogan alive with her mind.

 

Citadel/ Zakera ward/ 2185

 

The Zakera wards were the common shopping grounds for all the visitors of the Citadel; or at last the ones that dock their ships near dock 27; the place where the Normandy has been ordered to dock as they moved into the Embassies of the Presidium.

Rapid trans could have moved all of them directly into the cargo but surprisingly Iron wolf asked to make a quick stop in the level 26, there was a lot of shops in the citadel but to the Iron wolf to actually ask for a stop it would be a first; any case Garrus see no problem on doing so, but not after glare at Sheppard to see if she approved or not; the wise turian see how Shepard nodded once still glaring daggers at the man on the back seat, in a very uncomfortable position with Miranda who awkwardly trying to buy some space as the new fur of the Iron wolf was as hard as steel and the fur could shave her skin.

The view improved a little the humor of the woman, as making Miranda miserable was one of her secret hobbies; she hoped that in time she would tone down her Ice queen attitude and the Iron wolf helped her in that regard as the giant man could make Miranda uncomfortable just standing at her side. He didn’t look as he has noticed the attraction Miranda has for him; as fellow woman Shepard could understand that the astartes was the perfect male specimen, too big for her tastes but still very desirable, so teasing both of them could be a great source of enjoyment on the large Mass effect travels and FTL travels, from planet to planet.

They park on the ward and instantaneously they followed the astartes as he entered in Saronis applications and start tapping in the console of the shop much to the indifference of the salarian vendor who still stared for a few second the gigantic man as he has never seen a human so damn big in all his life.

Iron wolf flashed his omnitool a second on his cybernetic left arm; something that no one could know under that gray harsuit of him; and nodded once, paying the upgrade of the software and asking the customer if the last model of Omnitool from Saronis would be already incorporating the omniblade.

The salarian blinked; so did all the companions of Iron wolf, what was he talking about?.

The salarian shrugged and said that no one has told him anything of that recently, and the last models of the Saronis Omnitools will be in the market with a revolutionary anti-hacking system that has been tested by all the military organizations on the universe and proof even resistant to geth hacking attempts. Pure propaganda, but all of them know that, even the poor vendor whose job was just being on the stand and answer technical and problems that could have surged with one of the products of the shop.

Iron wolf nodded and exited the shop but suddenly he stopped and Garrus collided with his back and the damn hard new black fur pelt of him, confused by the sudden stop, however the astartes quickly moved and intervened into a conversation having place in one of the corners of the Zakera ward between a quarian, a volus and a human Seg-C officer.

Shepard stopped all of them to follow the Iron wolf as she was very interested in why has reacted the astartes like that and most importantly how is he going to act in this event; she has already confirmed her worst suspicions. The astartes was a complete Xenophobe but at the same time there was time on where he defended, protect or simply let it be, that same aliens around him. Such dichotomy was intriguing Shepard, and she pretend to change the astartes all she can; specially after the stunt he has pull with the consort; before the man gives into her most extreme tendencies and do something as stupid as join Cerberus or Terra Firma or anything like those lines; between his tech and his personal power the galaxy could be in a fucking serious problem.

Iron wolf towered over the conversation and shut up all of them just with his presence alone as he was fucking terrifying with that wolf helm of him and the new fur pelt that make him look like some kind of tecno viking warlord or something.

“Lea?” faced the quarian female “Lea´naa nar Idenna?, what are you doing here cub?”.

“Keelah...” whispered the woman “Howler?, is that you?”.

“In flesh and metal” laughed shortly.

“Eh...(hissss) we are not end here thief...(hiiiissss)” interjected a tiny volus; well compared to the Iron wolf the volus will look like a fat and ugly baby trying to call the attention of his parent.

“Who the hell are you anyways?” asked the tired Seg-C officer who was looking the armed and giant form of Iron wolf with apprehension.

“Just a friend of the accused” said the Iron wolf “ and speaking of which, what is she accused for?”.

“She stole my creditslate!” pointed the volus to the quarian girl.

“What?!, no!” replied Lea “ this bosh´tet and I bumped at the exit of the ship shop over there, and suddenly started to shout at me calling me thief” said the Quarian very offended.

“Whatever, the quarians had enough infamy around here to be possible” shrugged the Seg-C officer, don’t giving a damn about all of this and more than happy to just arrest the quarian and get it done.

Unfortunately for him Iron wolf was there and he has fuming inside about the laziness and uncaring the attitude the security officer had; back in his universe an adeptus arbitres would have been severely punished for such a dereliction of his duties. Iron wolf dig into the mind of the volus trying to find any clue that could lead to where he could have lost his damn creditslate, the shop he has visited where the ship shop and Saronis applications, he raised his head and launch his mind into the Saronis shop finding quickly that the salarian vendor; the optimistic Marab; is still waiting for the volus to go to retrieve his creditslate as he has lost it in the shop.

“Your creditslate is a blue certified slate from the Citadel Varla bons bank?” asked Iron wolf staring directly at the little asthmatic alien who fidgeted a little under his glare.

“Err...yes, that’s it” replied and intimidated the volus.

“Marab from Saronis application is holding it for you” informed to the alien who stiffened a little and replied in a neutral tone.

“Ah, oh, well, she could have stolen it” accused firmly in his beliefs.

“You bosh´tet!” shouted offended Lea.

“Allow me to help you recover it” said Iron wolf in a tone that send a chill down through the spines of all of them and then he grab the head of the volus and in a prodigious feat of strength throw the volus flying and scoring a perfect point, inside the O of the Saronis shop cartel. Unfortunately the volus was round enough to get blocked on the letter, leaving him kicking and screaming on the announcement of the shop.

“What the fuck?” blinked the Seg-c officer at the sight of the screaming flying volus in the O of the sardonis shop, he quickly put his hands in the handcuffs but a growl from the giant in front of him froze immediately.

“Don’t even thing about it you corrupted scum” threatened with an intense glare of the red lenses of his wolf helmet “ or I will twist your neck and just sweep you under the carpet, as the fool who wanted to arrest a Specter”.

The face of the officer paled immediately and start running in the opposite direction, leaving a laughing Lea and a growling Iron wolf alone. The quarian woman was in the verge of a collapse as she couldn’t stop laughing at the sight of the volus, acting as a whimpering living plug, inside the circumference of the O of the software shop.

“Keelah Iron wolf” recovered the breath the quarian female between laughs “ you are always my prince charming uh?”.

“Don’t even joke about it, cub” snort Iron wolf “ I am sure you had more than enough from the last job to be back to the flotilla already, so, why are you here?” questioned Iron wolf to the girl who started to grind her hands one with the other.

“Well, I did have the money but I had nothing to bring back to the flotilla and I wanted to bring something really useful so I buy a little ship and...” started to explain with a sighing and miserable tone “ my ship was shot down by pirates before I reach the flotilla”.

“You are truly unlucky, cub” barked as laugh Iron wolf activating his omnitool and sending an archive to the quarian “ this is are the coordinates where a friend of mine will offer you a job and the possibility of put your hands in a good ship for the flotilla” said the Iron wolf “ you will have to earn it, but it will get you out of here”.

“I...don’t know how to thank you Iron wolf” the quarian female hugged the astartes and he stiffened a little.

“What did I tell you about hugs, cub?” sighed the astartes breaking the contact but with care of not damaging at the all the suit of the quarian.

“Ah, yeah sorry...I am still a bit excited you know” said the quarian “ but, really, why are you so kind with me?”.

“You protected and repaired my _Fenris;_ my home and ship, for that action I will always be in your debt” shrugged the Iron wolf and the quarian laughed and say goodbye to the man, almost running to by the soonest ticket she could purchase to the coordinates his friend has give to her.

Iron wolf shook his head and head back to where the rest of the ground team was; not very surprised to found two of them laughing their asses of and a very amused Miranda with a raise eyebrow in his direction as non-verbalized question. Iron wolf shrugged and start walking to the stairs the lead to the level on where the Normandy has been lock trailing behind him a laughing pair of teammates who couldn’t stop laughing and pointing the image of the volus on the letters of the shop.

The event has conglomerated quite the number of people who were more or less in the same state of Shepard and Garrus; laughing their asses of; but others were offended by such a xenophobic display and other like a pair of krogan were eying the nearby volus like they wanted to test their accuracy too with a biotic throw. Iron wolf hadn’t used a single bit of biotic; he has enhanced his muscles thanks to his power as psyker and simply throw the little piece of shit like it was a ball; the O was the best target he could find in the surroundings.

It was that or throw him rolling down the stairs like a bowling ball.

Still, he wasn’t disturbed at all for what he has done; instead what he did perturbed him a little was the collection of models Garrus had to carry on his xeno person when Shepard squealed and entered into the souvenirs shop ready to buy all the models of the shop; she loved modeling, it was her secret vice, she had a model of almost any know ship of the universe, even a replica of Sovereign she painted with “ _Who’s the monkey now uh?”_ all over his plastic armor.

But the models were a good thing, as a very unorthodox Magos like himself could understand that building those replicas could help to develop early the abilities need to be a good artisan before being initiated in the deeper and more difficult secrets of the Omnissiah; the thing that really perturbed Iron wolf was the three bags containing fishes.

“Commander I must ask you” the glare of the red lenses was fixated like the laser point of a sniper over the bags with the fishes “I take the Normandy has already picked up supplies for a good amount of time and I assume among those same crates, there is fresh food of all kinds, fish included; so, if that’s the case; Can you explain me for what purpose are you carrying those fishes in a plastic bag?”.


	5. Wulfen effect 5

Normandy SR-2/ Hangar bay/ 2185

  


Shepard was standing in the front of the _Fenris_ chuckling a little after saw Kasumi sat over the ship trying to hack or bypass the ship security so she could enter the ship and stole something from the Iron wolf. Shepard was sure the woman will deliver it back as soon as she got it, because the woman didn’t really want to be on the bad side of the super soldier and much less after seeing how easily he can pierce her stealth cloak and find her any place on the ship.

She moved to the lateral door of the ship and call inside by pressing her omnitool against the red hologram displayed in the door as a mod of ring bell; Shepard knew the astartes was inside, as soon as they get back in the Normandy, he has locked himself in the deeps of his damn shuttle and he didn’t get out in the last twelve hours; as she knew the shuttle was completely independent, the only reason the astartes has been locked inside his ship must be of personal reasons.

Every one has manifested her interest in how the Iron wolf reacted in the consort chambers but they reacted with surprise to the friendship the astartes had with a quarian called Lea´naa nar Idenna, a young pilgrim who had helped Iron wolf once and since then the astartes has been helping the girl every time they had meet during their travels in the universe. It seems that the quarian was one of the ones who participated in the construction of the _Fenris_ and that’s a favor the astartes will be paying her for all his life; quite exaggerated but at the same time it proved that the astartes has some kind of honor or tolerance against xenos as he called all the aliens no matter species.

Ironically as he himself stop calling himself human but Wulfen, astartes or member of her _Aett_ and before that member of the _Aett_ of a primarch or demigod called Leman Russ, he didn’t consider himself a Xenos, damn he is a crazy one.

The door of the shuttle opened and seeing that no one came out of it did confuse Shepard a little but she got inside and smiled widely when she heard the muffled cries of indignation of Kasumi.

The first thing she saw when she entered as the panoply of arms that decorated a full wall of the shuttle; damn the armory of the Normandy only had half of the shit displayed in front of her, from common avengers to pieces of weaponry that she didn’t saw in all her life, nor she didn’t mind test some of those babies in real combat.

But the armor was the real deal that called her attention.

It was of a dark gray tone, with several golden runes of all the surface, Shepard blinked when he tried to follow the runes along the armored chest and limbs; the recently recovered fur was proudly display on his back with the front claws cross over the chest of the armor and the head of the wolf on the left shoulder. She touched the material of the armor and surprised for not founding it as metallic as she has hoped it would be. The armor did feel as hard the armor of the Mako but at the same time it was much more soft and polished than her own heavy vanguard armor, not to mention the amor was thicker than anything she has seen anyone wear, except a damn krogan battlemaster. The wolf helmet was crowning the armor but the red lenses were off and it only exudes a sensation of tranquility and vigilance.

She has seen the armor before, the day she and the rest of the team fought Saren and meet the Iron wolf for the first time; but then the armor was in a worst state, full of patches and cracks, not to mention half of the chest piece was broken and now it was in pristine condition.

“Highly modified runic armor MK-12 Lupio pattern” announced with pride on her back Iron wolf and she had to call all her force of will not to jump into the ceiling of the shuttle by the fucking surprise.

“Fucking piece of art” nodded Shepard calming her heart as the fucker almost give her a heart attack appearing from nowhere so suddenly.

She turned to face the astartes who was dress in a hardsuit like shirt and pants, leaving at free sight his augmented left arm; he did look more human that way, not to mention the suit did hug his ripped body; she mentally grinned, Miranda was going to have enough eye-candy to became diabetic after this.

“What can I do for you Commander?” asked the astartes who had a dataslate in her flesh hand like he has being attending some kind of maintenance.

Not really a surprise, no one of the technicians on the ship has even dared to touch the shuttle as they have no idea what kind of maintenance has a shuttle like this; neither has she, but she was sure Tali will fell in love with the ship, as soon as she could have a look at his design, but for that she would have to soft a lot the astartes, and after the stunt he pulled with the consort she has no idea what to do.

“I was about to hit your head hard, with all the common sense I could muster but seen how thick your astartes head is, I drop the idea and instead came to ask if you will be join the mess hall once again and tell us more about your universe” said Shepard nonchalantly although she really wanted to give him a piece of her mind but better in friendly terms.

God knows what kind of damage could both of them provoke inside her baby and no one hurts her baby, not anymore.

“I will be honored” shrugged the astartes and Shepard blinked a pair of times not really sure about what she has heard “I bring another barrel of mead with me”.

“ _Hell yes!”_ fist bumped Shepard in the private corners of her mind, she was fucking good on her commanding job.

As soon as they get out of the shuttle; with Iron wolf carrying a barrel of the glorious mead and an strange piece of tech that look like a backpack but with a lot of lights and cables, Shepard had no idea what the hell were for; they found a pouting Kasumi who stare at them, with a cute pout under her hood and her arms crossed.

“This is unfair!” protested the woman at both of them “ I have been days trying to slip in, and you just let Shep walk in like it was nothing, that’s so unfair!” whined the thief who was dying of curiosity about what was inside of the shuttle.

“Did you knock?” asked Shepard to the woman with a wide grin and the thief froze in her place blinking under her hood and turning her face to the giant, who didn’t wear his scary helmet now.

“Seriously?” muttered in frankly disbelieve.

“I would be a very bad host if I don’t answer to the calls on my door” shrugged the astartes and with that they broke Kasumi, who get in the elevator being dragged by a laughing Shepard and a grinning Iron wolf.

The appearance of the man in the mess hall was received with a stunned silence before everyone looked with a glint in their eyes the barrel over his shoulders, first the food improved greatly and now a glass of mead to end the dinner; not to mention the possibility of more histories of the astartes?, the day got better and better.

“A present Gardner” drop the barrel Iron wolf next to the chef of the Normandy “ for the improvement on the food”.

“Thanks pal” almost cry the man looking at the barrel like he has just saw the second coming of the messiah “ same recipe?”.

“A little tweak” shrugged the astartes “ I use another kind of honey this time, not sure the results, too sweet for my tastes”.

Once again he threw a canister to Garrus who caught the container in the air and nodded in thanks to the astartes, he could be a xenophobic prick sometimes but when is a matter of mead, he surely knows his stuff. Iron wolf served himself a little of all the food on the serving, even he took dextro food, as everyone was looming over the new recipe of mead, only Chakwas repaired on how he was chewing happily the food like it was everything alright.

“Iron wolf!” shouted her alarming all the people around “that’s dextro food, that’s poisonous for...humans...” her voice volume weakened as the astartes just keep munching a purple steak looking at her, with mirth on his eyes.

“Iron wolf, don’t take me wrong, but you and Shepard are the only ones who manages to surprise me, regularly” chuckled Garrus as frozen as the rest of the crowd seeing the astartes eating happily dextro and human food with equal gusto.

Mordin on the other hand was staring at the astartes and tipping on his omnitool at the same time he keeps muttering ideas and observations about the astartes and the possibilities and impossibilities he continued bringing to the table; the man was the most scientific challenge he has seen since his younger years when he did something that changed the galaxy forever, and burden his soul tremendously for it.

“How?” blinked Chakwas who started to remember all the unique system of the astartes yet it was supposedly impossible to do what he was doing; not for a human DNA and despite all the biological alterations, his DNA was mostly human.

“I have a strong stomach” shrugged Iron wolf between bites from his tray as he was eating like a famine biotic.

“All the astartes eat like you?” asked Shepard as she was a vanguard she usually eat a lot too.

“Some yes, some no, depends of the legion or the chapter” answered Iron wolf.

“I hear you about those terms, what differences are between them?” asked Miranda cautiously as she wanted to know more but she didn’t want to burn any possible bridges between her and the astartes for the sake of the mission against the collectors.

Iron wolf smiled to the woman with a wolfish grin and she shuddered inside her mind, as she couldn’t but find the astartes damn attractive, when he plays like that with her; unfortunately for them, Shepard wasn’t the only one who noticed such reaction, no matter how much Miranda tried to hid it and soon another poll formed on the crew decks. Hope the Commander will never found about the two polls, she will flay all of them alive if she ever found about it.

“That is a difficult question to answer, Lawson” snorted Iron wolf “ it´s a question that need a lot of context to explain; it´s a tale of several thousand years to fill; still lesser to tell compared with the glorious empire of the eldars, who covered sixty million years before they mess it up badly” chuckled with a teasing smile.

“S-S-sixty million years?!” replied almost choking Mordin on his drink; this mead was much better than the previous; too much sugar but still very good “ that’s incredible, longer empire proteans with fifty thousand years until disappearance, how could a civilizations rise for so many years?, they are the prominent race of your universes no?”.

“Nay, they are past their glorious days” said Iron wolf “ they had their own cataclysm, no one ever know what on earth happened with them but it decimated their empire and now there are nothing but a shadow of their former self, hiding in their own Craftworlds and few colonies scarce around the galaxy”.

“How?, how could a great empire like that collapse?” muttered Mordin to himself tapping in his omnitool.

“Sore spot for them” shrugged Iron wolf smiling.

He just put his strange backpack in the middle of the room and did some adjustments to it with his omnitool flashing over his synthetic arm, he didn’t need to tap on it, all the commands were sent and mental orders from the wires that connected the modular and sturdy arm with his brain and nervous system.

“I will need a bit of visual help with this history and I would have love to have a good mead hall fire but this would have to be suffice” smirked Tor running some tests over the machine, the wires and cables of the strange backpack extended and connected to some points on the mess hall, tapping into the power lines and into the systems but EDI was already there so she could control the integration and do not cause harm to the rest of the ship.

He stood up and light his omnitool once before all the mess hall became a living space, thanks to the holographic projections made by the back pack on the floor; all of them grab their chair as they were suddenly floating in the middle of empty space.

“Best XF Ever!” shouted Shepard getting close to a star and passing her hands over it without burning “this is freaking awesome”.

“Good ol imperial holographic tech, usually it is sphere shaped, and displaying a complete war scenario over a planet in real time” shrugged Iron wolf who pointed his omnitool to a zone of the space and bring it closer to him.

Soon, all noticed that the sphere was nothing but a representation of earth but there was something odd about it; it wasn’t the blue orb that all of them know and love but it was much more colored with gray, brown and black. The image show them how all the surface of the earth was the biggest megalopolis they had ever saw, covering all the planet surface into a complete a gigantic city who reached the sky with the tips of their Gothic style and highly decorated buildings; buildings that were completely covered in cannons ;the size of the Normandy the smaller of them; perfectly integrated into the surface of the buildings.

The spectacle was astonishing and frightening at the same way.

“Holy Terra, Capital of the Imperium of Humankind” sound pride Iron wolf “ as I remember when I became part of the astartes under the command of my Primarch, Leman Russ”.

No one could say nothing as they were engrossed into the view of the planet, so different from the earth they know, in fact so different from anything they know, not even the capital worlds of any race has reach such level of construction on their lands. Tor moved the Terra and let it repose in the center of the solar system taking the totality of the universe inside his hands before open it again and show all of his listeners how the Imperium divided the galaxy on segmemtums, so they can organize the million planets or so, that stand nowadays in Imperial hands despite the Black crusades and the attacks of the rest of the fucking Xenos from all the borders of the Empire.

The sheer numbers of the Imperium was making the heads of all of them spinning, it was somehow dwarfing all the military effort of all the combined races of the universe, the galaxy of the Iron wolf was designed for war, no doubt about that.

“It was about the twenty thousand millennium” the voice of the astartes keep telling the tale of the ascension of the humanity to the stars “ during the times know only as the Dark ages of the technology”.

“During that time the humanity reach his peak in technological development, half of the equipment you have seen me use is based or recovered from those ancient days, where the humanity colonized the stars, expanding and discovering all the universe could offer to the young race”.

Soon, humanity and his complete domain over technology way beyond any ones imagination, reached even the furthest stars and construct colonies and any place they could, they were at their peak, they could even change the climate and geography of hostile environments thanks to the help of the Terraforming machines and the labor of the Iron men.

“The Iron men, the working force of those days, _Abominable intelligences_ that works in behalf of the humanity, protecting them and realizing all kind of physical and difficult labor no matter how hostile the environment, could be” Tor almost spat the name but suddenly he rose an eyebrow and stared to Kasumi who had her hand up.

“I can barely believe you have actually raised your hand” laughed the astartes much to the embarrassment of Kasumi who felt like a child back in the school.

“What is that?” asked the thief.

“What is what?” retorted Tor.

“Abominable intelligence, you had called the Iron men; I think they were some kind of advanced mecha; that and it did sound like you had an ax to grind with them” said the thief giving voice to a lot of the surrounding thoughts.

Mordin and Miranda were doing all they could to engrave all of what they were seeing in their memories; just the holographic display was way beyond anything they knew, not even the best cinemas and holos in the citadel had a holotech that could be reduced and transported into a backpack. Not to mention the communication holos were mostly blue or devoid of any colors, yet they could see the green and blue of the surrounding planets, along the images of giant red and yellow stars. Another tech miracle the astartes has pull out of his infinite trick bag of tech wonders, that was making all the scientific personnel aboard the Normandy spin their heads about the possibilities.

Truly a pity discovering such secrets was like finding a pacifist Reaper, not even the best Thief on the universe has managed to get into the mysterious shuttle called _Fenris_ and the tech personnel in charge of the maintenance of the vehicles down the hangar bay had no fucking idea where to being with the gargantuan shuttle.

“ _Abominable intelligence_ is the name the Mechanicum gives to the Artificial intelligences” explained Tor to the woman “ it was a name that they earned after the Dark days of the technology, when all the supposedly allies of the humanity turn against them” said in an ominous voice and everyone put his attention on the man and how he turned the images to a bloody massacre.

Everybody gasped, stiffened or grunted at the images of how anthropomorphic metal men were butchering people like they were cattle and how several aliens, whose species no one of them had ever seen before, just get out of the machines way, letting the humanity fall at the hands of his own creations.

“One of the oldest pictures of those days, I only could take a glance of it during my final trial as Magos of the Mechanicum, before I went back to my _Aett_ as one of the Iron priests of the legion” explained Tor the image.

“The Iron Men betrayed the humanity, no one ever knew why or how, but suddenly, their artificial minds start a complete human obliteration program that spread like wildfire to all corners of the galaxy”.

He kept telling how the powerful machines just kill all the humans in sight as the Xenos they had befriend just get out of its way, the machines had nothing against the alien races, as their damn program and hate was completely dedicated on killing all humans they could find on their path.

“Spirits, its like the Geth rebellion but in a freaking universe size scale” muttered Garrus with several difficulties to believe what he was seeing.

“The machines attacked all the human population centers with cold, logic, efficiency; decimating the population and simply harvesting all the human race of any place they could find” was saying the voice of Iron wolf.

Both Garrus and Shepard shared a long stare as they listened to that specific line of the speech of the astartes and recognize horrible similitude with their situation right now, too many similitudes to be comfortable.

“Terrific, disgusting, against all ethical rules” was muttering Mordin looking intensely at one of the humanoid Iron men as he killed a defenseless human in gruesome manner “how come there was no resistance?, Where were the armies of humanity?”.

“The Iron Men were the humanity armies” barked in irony Iron wolf “ thousands and thousands of loyal metal men who could fight in any condition, against any enemy without the need of spill a single drop of human blood”.

“Fuck” snorted Zaeed keeping his mead glass close to him.

“Thousand of planets were devoid of human life, as the Iron Men keep decimating them, until there was no more humans to kill, then they moved to another planet and keep going” Tor voice was pure ice as he was telling the history and he couldn’t hide his hate for the machines.

“Dear lord...how many deaths?, how many lost?” said Chawkas who couldn’t keep his face looking at the picture.

“Several Trillions” said coldly Tor and everybody on the mess hall felt a chill crawling up their spine after the cold and dramatic numbers the astartes has just spill like nothing.

“That’s just all the galaxy population right now more or less...” shuddered Miranda “ it is impossible the humanity reach such numbers they will exhaust the resources long before they hit those numbers”.

“Not exactly” denied Mordin doing some quick calculations with his own omnitool “ if we take in account the number of planets, the workload, similar expansion rate than the actual humanity giving enough time it is more than plausible”.

“The humanity fought back, but it was a hard war and almost all tech went practically lost” keep telling the history Iron wolf as he knew full well how hard the realities of the 42 millennium were; he has been fighting for thousands of years against all the universe could have thrown at him and his brothers of the 13th and he still stands, in another universe but still unbowed.

“The casualties were catastrophic but at the end humanity prevailed, still in a weakened and divided state as all the humanity was lost on the stars, every one at each own, no longer possible any kind of space travel for two simple reasons” Tor sighed, it was truly one of the darkest moments of humanity and yet it was nothing compared with the great betrayal that followed the Glorious Great crusade.

“First of all, humanity has lost practically all the tech he had; at some point it was needed to reinvent flight”.

“Wait, reinvent flight?, then how the hell did the people win the war?” asked Shepard who was taking short ships from his mead as engrossed as the rest of the crew with the tale of the astartes.

“Shepard, reinvented atmospheric flight” specified Tor and Shepard low jaw hit the mess hall table “ several worlds went into practically the stone era again and only thousand of years later could they being pull back into the Imperial light”.

“The other reasons were terrific warp storms that collapsed all interstellar travel between systems and sometimes even between planets, separating the humanity completely form their home planet, the Sacred Terra”.

“Wait; why didn’t you travel between stars?, why don’t use mass effect relays?” asked someone in the group.

“We didn’t use Eezo” simply stated Tor and the crowd suddenly went mute of pure shock “we travel between the stars using FTL travels from planet to planet and Warp jumps when we need to get into another star system”.

“But then, what powers your ships?” asked Mordin “ Fusion is not capable of sustaining that much energy”.

“Your dependance of the Eezo has blinded you to any other possibilities” Tor didn’t answer the question by changing the topic.

And that did raise some eyebrows, specially Mordin, Miranda and Shepard who knew that perhaps it was because the doctor was a salarian, it seems for the moment Iron wolf did not trust enough in any of the alien races, except that quarian girl back on the citadel. Shepard was convinced that this was going to be a hard nut to crack if she wanted to put her hands in the tech wonders the fucking astartes had hid inside his thick skull, nor she didn’t understand it was pretty difficult for the astartes to thrust the aliens, as Garrus confirmed her that the super soldier from a total Xenophobic war oriented universe, on where there is constant war between humanity and pretty much everybody else.

“The Dark age of the Technology ended, when humanity defeated the Iron Men but the cost was heavy and thanks to the warp storms the humanity was lost and confused in a hostile universe who predated on them, it was one of the darkest times of the humanity until the Age of Strife”.

Tor suddenly pick up the burned galaxy map of and make appear a complete hologram of the Normandy as big as the table on where all of them were sat listening to the tale, the hologram was completely detailed, and all of them look in amazement to the image, even touching the holographic projection as they couldn’t believe the ship was not real.

“This is your baby Shepard” said Tor presenting all the tech data of the ship in a dozen of screens that appeared surrounded the people, the numbers were totally precise and even more detailed than the reports the tech crew send to the XO, some of them were even taking notes about how to put such a detailed report.

“As impressive as it is your ship is not a Super frigate by Imperial standard, let me show you what a Figrate was in my universe” explained Tor lighting his omnitool and pointing to the side of the table.

Shepard choked; and she was not the only one; with his drink, as the massive form of a Firestorm class Frigate appeared in front of them, the data displayed at his side make the eyes of the people bulge for the numbers and they look at the decorated hull of the ship, who was armed to the teeth with some kind of long range cannon, one of the size of the fucking Normandy.

A lot of angels and strange inscriptions surrounded the ships hull, ending the ship in a strange half spherical head, under that head there was a dozen of gigantic cannons that pointed forward. All the ship looks the bastard child of a roman bireme and a Gothic church with enough cannons to blow anything to kingdom come, if he wanted. The hall filled with a stunned and focused silence on the data that appeared on the dozens of screens they had over all the surface of the ships, they knew that it was a hologram, yet it was freaking huge, it dwarfed the Normandy like the Ascension of Destiny does with any non-dreadnought class ships; not to mention half of the data that appeared on the screens, specially the weapon and inside systems of the ship, were a complete unknown for all of them.

What was a Golgotha sacred reactive nova cannon?, or a Therios VI Omnissiah bless warp reactor?.

Any case the part what all of them understood was the huge sizes of the ship.

“One point eight kilometers long, six megatons weight, thirty thousand crew members” was reading Miranda the screens and progressively freaking out inside the safety of her own mind.

“I present you the Firestorm class Frigate _Pompeya_ ” chuckled the man at the stunned faces of the rest of the crew “ one of the few vessels that survived against the Tau during the Taros Campaign”.

“Fuck the heavens pal” said Zaeed munching the words as he read the weapons readings “this thing has enough fire power to wipe out anything out there”.

“Its an honorable vessel with a thousand years of service in the Imperial navy” smiled Tor without any need of hide the pride he fell about the sacred Omnissiah ships.

“What?!” shouted Mordin once again completely shocked by the words of the astartes “impossible!, the raw materials of the ship couldn’t endure for that long, the energy requirements, the strain over the hull”.

“I already told you, we build to endure” smiled Tor secretly enjoying the faces of the people “ most of the ships of the Empire armada has centuries of service on their belts, all tech of the Empire must be prepared for thousands of years of service, from my bolter to the lesser ATT on the PDF armies, all must be ready for eternal war”.

Tor made a pause before the ship disappeared and the map of the galaxy appeared back in all his glory, divided in hundreds of battle fronts and lines, war campaigns that were occurring when he was throw out of his universe to land in this.

“In my universe there is only war” said ominously the astartes expanding his arm so his audience could see the state of the universe; a constant warfare against everything and anything out there, there was no respite, no mercy, no remorse.

Only war.

“And we believe the dreadnoughts were something” chuckled Zaeed taking a long gulp from his mead “ this _Pompeya_ makes any Dreadnought look like a child toy”.

Tor started to laugh after a few seconds of confusion, action that did surprise a little the rest of the people who didn’t understand what was so funny about the remark Zaeed has made.

“Irony is thick here” laughed the astartes before lighting his omnitool once again and generating in front of the audience the image of the biggest and baddassest Yimir mech they have seen in their entire life.

“This is a Dreadnought” smirked Tor “ I present you all, Hakkon Bloodfist”.

In front of the audience was a squared metallic bipedal giant that was long pas the twenty feet mark, a bulked war machine full of armor plaques and similar runes to the ones that Iron wolf had in his armor.

Two strong legs sustained the beast of the metal, a large coffin with the image of a wolf jumping over a twisted parody of a man stand in the middle of squared and wide strongly armored torso of the machine; on his left side a double weapon that has resemblances with Tor own bolter and the other hand a large and sparking claw with three fingers, under the wrist of such claw appeared a flamethrower of some kind.

Over his shoulders a pair of missile tubes appeared along a pair of chimneys from the highly protected generator on his back, all the figure irradiated power and violence; it was like seeing the father of all Yimir mechs but this one, has an ax to grind with the universe.

“A coffin, Spirits, there is a coffin on it!” pointed Garrus to the decorated center of the machine as he has deducted the presence and function of the box in the middle of the Dreadnought.

“That...that things is commanded by a living being inside” whispered Shepard “ dammit, Iron wolf, what the hell is this?”.

“When an astartes is wounded beyond any possibility of recovery but not to the point of death, and if he is a powerful hero, he is granted the honor to be permanently fused with the sacred form a Dreadnought” explained Iron wolf with reverence in the voice “their wisdom, experience and battle progress is not lost for the rest of the chapter, and they could fight, once again, in the battlefield”.

“Fuck” resumed Jacob blinking at the massive form of the menacing war machine “ let me get this straight, if one of you is crippled, you put him inside one of those things?, the one inside the coffin is alive?”.

“Yes” nodded the Iron wolf “ Hakkon suffered a massive wound in the purge of an _abominable intelligence_ race called the Oletian quietude, when we recovered his body he had seventy percent of it burned and charred from plasma fire; he had lost his limbs and legs and he had a cracked head”.

The silence that followed that words was deafening itself but Iron wolf keep telling how Hakon became one of the Dreadnoughts of his _Aett._

“We recovered him and start the surgery that would permanently link his soul to the machine spirit of the Dreadnought, different from the Contemptor pattern the Legions used, this was one of the variants the Iron priests put under _Vlka Fe_ _n_ _r_ _y_ _ka_ care at the ends of the Great crusade” told Tor modifying the image so they could see the coffin that keep the crippled astartes alive and fused with the machine “astartes and machine, completely fused into a war machine, that brought fear to the enemies of the Emperor”.

“Dear lord” said Chakwas who could even start to image the class of pain and suffering one has to endure to fully integrate the consciousness of a living flesh body into the mass of metal in front of her.

“This is one of the worst bullshits I have ever saw in my fucking life!!” say Shepard in loud voice glaring directly to the Iron wolf “ how could you do this to you own people, to your own comrades?!”.

Tor shook his head without anger, it was a common misconception among the non-astartes forces or anything who has no ties with the sacred Mechanicum in mars, they don’t understand the joy of the fusion with the machine; the perfect fusion of mind and body with the metal mass of a Dreadnought.

He knows that most of the wolf brothers of the Sixth legion didn’t consider being inside a Dreadnought a real honor but none of them declined the offering when is put in front of them, simply because it would being another chance to die with honor in the battlefield, to bring death to the enemies of the Emperor and add new verses to your Edda for the time you had to relate it in front of the Emperor when the end of the days came.

“Shepard, this is a honor” said Tor slowly and softly, an action that raise some eyebrows in his audience “ We are astartes, we are forged in battle, baptism in blood, could you even imagine what it means for a being like us to be crippled?, to lose purpose?” there was a tone of sadness inside the voice of the astartes that make their spines tingle, it was very close to a personal revelation and it would be a fucking huge advance for him.

“Well yeah but...” started Shepard but he silenced her raising a hand and manifesting a dozen of similar machines; the frame was quite similar but the weapons and the decorations were completely different.

“This are some Dreadnoughts I have under my care, when I was Iron priest” said the astartes with a nostalgic smile in the corner of his lips, revealing his long fangs “ all of them were heroes, proud members of our _Aett_ ”.

He present each one of them to his audience, along some of their most impressive feats, when they were Dreadnoughts, how they win battles and glory for their Aett, no matter if Shepard believed that they were trapped in the hull of the sacred war machine.

“Aenor Thunder breath, destroyer of the Crucifixion Cabal; Robar Stoneheart, the Defendor of the Saberian Gates; Galmar Axesinger the Eviscerator of abominations; Thorald Loyalfang the Savior of the Hurdan Hive city, Hyn Firefist, Killer of demons” Tor recited every single name with proud and sadness at the same time.

“They were my friends Shepard, my brothers, my pack, I keep their metallic bodies in perfect shape; I took care of their nutrients fluids and chant the codes of the deactivation of the mind impulse core so they could sleep in peace and without pain between campaigns. I listened to his machine cores, tell me in binary the feats of their pilots” Tor shut the images and the holographic display with a single sweep of his Omnitool.

“I feel honored to be able to fight at their side and repair the damages they suffer in battle and when the days of his demise came, it was my duty and privilege, to remember their names and their glorious feats” Tor stop talking and close his eyes, lost in the images of the past, the glorious days of the crusade when he and his Aett brothers conquered the stars and carry the will of the All-father.

No one dare to say a word after the emotional display of the astartes, no one of them know nothing of the astartes beyond the previous time he has come to the mess hall and every time he come he surpassed himself by shocking beyond belief his audience with the tales of his universe of origin.

But this was definitely; the last thing one expects from a cybernetic super soldier are emotions; the deep bond the brothers; as astartes called themselves; shared, was impressive on his own rights but there was more to it. Shepard and Garrus were having similar thoughts, Tor wasn’t telling them all of it, there was much more hid in the words of the astartes, the history has just begun so much they can tell on the other hand Miranda and Jacob were having their own private stare contest. Jacob was a man of honor and his recent pseudo relationship with Kasumi has done well to both of them, although he was not as loyal as Miranda was to Cerberus, serving under Shepard and her unique view and way of doing things always had that effect on the people.

Jacob was staring at Miranda with a single question in his eyes.

“ _Are you going to inform TIM of this?”._

As military himself, he could understand part of the words of the astartes, he has being created to war, as simply as that; if he is the standard of the astartes, they make the krogan look tame and the video of the flying volus and how he manages to rip in half a yagh with his bare hands would only increase his infamous name across the galaxy. Shepard needed the best, and no doubt this bastard is one of them, his tech is off the charts, he could kill a krogan barehanded and carry weapons that make theirs look like children toys. If the things in his universe are this bad, no doubt the man was pretty much convinced they are severely unprepared for a war against the Collectors or the looming menace of the Reapers in the horizon.

Miranda answered with a neutral glare to her, well, calling him friend could be possible, she had no expression but inside there was a storm brewing, she wanted to know more, all about the astartes was a complete mystery but at the same time, his universe was terrific and at the same time, the answers to all the prayers of this universe.

He could be the panacea against the evil sentient living machine race called the Reapers.

Give the humanity the recipe for the bolters or his armor and they would face the Reapers with a smile, laser tech compact enough to fit in a shuttle and at the same time could damage a super frigate?, hell yes, all the weapon smiths of the universe would gladly sell their mothers souls for such a thing, the tech of the _Redstorm_?, a sword capable of cutting through a dense alloy like it was paper?, the medieval times are back with a vengeance.

In resume, and leaving apart that the astartes was exactly Mirandas type, he could bring salvation. Fortunately Shepard, Garrus and other are slowly gaining the trust of the astartes and perhaps in due time he would reveal the secrets they need to survive the war. Which leads to another and very important question, would she deliver what she has just found to TIM?, would she shut her trap and let the man keep his secrets?.

She couldn’t disappoint TIM, there was much more on the stake than just simply her position as one of the top Cerberus agents but the little secret of her family and the lineage she has been crafted to keep and represent.

However, the astartes was exactly her father and TIM wet dreams made flesh. A human supersoldier capable of trample a yahg.

Damn she couldn’t but feel like a scam victim in a sense, she has been carefully designed to be the perfect woman and suddenly this super soldier fuck it all to kingdom come just with his presence alone. Still, the original question lingered on her mind, she knows that the astartes was giving her the chance to earn his trust as he was doing with all the crew, part of Shepard _Aett_ as he was seeing the mission and the team for stopping the Collectors.

Would she try the hard route and earn the trust of the astartes?, or would she just squeeze every single piece of info she could muster and then call for the incoming recover squads of Cerberus?.

This was a very dangerous game and she was thorn between her loyalty to Cerberus and the different way of doing things the damned redhead called Shepard was showing her; damn her and her ability to win the trust of everybody around her.

Tor pushed a button on the back pack and the machine compacted on his own, much to the protest of a lot of the audience who had more questions, in fact a lot more questions than before but the astartes smiled and just walked away of the audience with a similar remark that the one he used the previous day.

All histories must be told, in his due time, rushing a good history would only devalue her valor and a Skald he would never do such a thing, it went against all he was.

The room keep silence for a few minutes after the departing of the Iron wolf as all of them were digesting the words and images the astartes has show them, it was a test of confidence, he has told it several times, the secrets of Iron wolf would only be revealed to the one that earn his trust, he wanted to see how much filtered, he wanted to see how much could he tell his new Aett.

Shepard feared what could happen when you betray the trust of an astartes, after seen him in combat in Omega, she knows that he was dangerous as a rabid varren and it would be need a shit ton of fire power to put him down. Hope they will not have to nuke that bridge when they reach it, for the moment Tor has been nothing but loyal; apart from the events that transpired with Sha´ira, something that have a lot more repercussions that it seems fist sight.

It would mean that a Primarch, as Tor calls the leader of his chapter, has already visited and make contact with the asari and yet, none of the Asari council has said shit about it, however at the same time, Sha´ira was sitting over the secret and for what Shepard could pick of the conversation, she was in love with the man called Leman Russ. Could be that some Asari carries the gen of the astartes?, somehow she doubted it, they will know of something like that already; an asari with her biotic powers and the physical progress of an astartes?, the universes the worst nightmare made flesh.

Shepard shared some of this mussing with Garrus, the member of the crew on who she trusted the most and she wasn’t surprised when Garrus twitched his jaws in what the Turians would call a swearing snort. Tor moved to the elevator of the ship, a machine he didn’t understand as there were barely four floors on the ship, if the _Normandy_ would be a real frigate, he could understand as it has ten separated floors over a kilometer but this was one or two hundred meters tall ship. Curious, nothing more, for him who has already seen stranger things in this blasted universe of xeno tolerance.

Almost three years has pass since his arrival and he has suffered long the absence of his brothers and the powerful light of the All-father. He threw himself in any battle he could find, trying to hide and prevent his mind to dwell so much in the fact that he was of No purpose, one of the worst destinies an astartes; no matter the legion; could suffer. But once again, this world was severely disappointing, what this people call battles was nothing but glorified skirmishes on where at most there are deployed a thousand or a million soldiers at best.

A single siege over a Chaos corrupted hive-world would have required of five million infantry guardsmen and possible a couple of astartes squads, just to be sure; not even mention artillery or the mechanical divisions.

Well, he can understand the concept of quality and the power of precise strikes instead of the overwhelming power of the legions, after all he has been doing hit and run incursions for more centuries that he would like to count but in this universe, it seems that they have grown complacent. The art of the war has become much cleaner, long forgotten the true butchery of a battlefield, the complete and absolute extermination of the enemy and the ashes of their bases and home worlds.

Not to mention that Eezo things they call weapons, Tor fell very disappointed when he investigated the weaponry of this universe, the theory was pretty good actually, he could respect that.

In fact with the correct applications, the Eezo tech could do wonders like the gravity vehicles they had on all the planets or the clean energy they harvest, but in general Tor knows that Plasma tech was much better.

Russ bones, even common ground laser tech was better than the hyper kinetic weapons they were so proud of. When the shields were invented, they should have automatically put all their attention in how to nullify it, instead they just created more Mass effect weapons.

Tor has already tested it, the shield don’t interfere with the laser beam, so any soldier out there, is just open for a laser barrage from even the most simple laser weapon; the day he discovered it, he almost had a heart attack, ironically, there is No laser weapons out there, except the Gardian systems of the salarians and even then, they are quite primitive and huge to be useful on infantry combat.

One single crusade and they will sweep the floor with this universe, heck this could be the easiest battle of all times, if they are as underdeveloped as they appear to be.

However, he had to give them the merit in the creation of so many anti-grav vehicles, thanks to their so overvalued mass effect tech. The day they discover plasma, the universe will see what a true war is.

For the All-father, even their biggest ships are just two fucking kilometers long, a single fucking Imperial frigate will put them down like whimpering dogs, not make him talk about what a real battleship of fifteen kilometers could do to the surface of a planet.

Russ bones, a single assault to the citadel and they will crumble like they were nothing, a strike force like the one that Saren put on the table almost destroys the galactic stability and send half the universe to a state of free for all, among all the races.

To say Tor was severely disappointed will be an understatement, however there was still hope.

The medigel was a blessing, the mass effect shields and fields, despite doing jack against energy beams could do wonders against artillery and missiles, the massive production of low orbit transport, that are almost soundless and capable of a speed equal to a landspeeder could revolution the hit and run imperial war strategy back at home. Tor was nursing an incoming headache, it happens every single time he focused on how shitted this universe warfare seems to be compared to what he was accustomed, two years and half roaming the battlefields and for the moment very few had managed to impress him.

So engross he was in his own mussing and ramblings that he didn’t notice the presence of Miranda, who hastened to join him in the elevator, an action that some crewmen noticed and pull some more credits on the betting pool about Miranda, back in the crew quarters.

Miranda let the doors close and just stood in a corner of the elevator, carefully analyzing the astartes, she was playing a patience game with the astartes, she will gain the trust of the soldier.

It was a long road but something in her, tell her, that it was the correct route to earn the trust of this supersoldier and perhaps, be finally free from her dad and the Illusive man.

“I will not answer more questions Lawson” grunted Tor when the elevator hit the hangar and the doors opened to him to exit.

“No, I know that” shook her head Miranda and she secretly enjoyed the hint of surprise in the eyes of the astartes, it was about time she was not the one shocked “ it is about a pair of cargo containers that were delivered on your name to the _Normandy”._

Tor raised an eyebrow in surprise, he has not sent any requisition of any kind, his shuttle, the _Fenris;_ was more than supplied for the time being, and he had not any real need of ammunition for the moment, so who and what the hell has been sent to the _Normandy?._

“Take me to the containers” said Tor exiting the elevator waiting for Miranda to guide him to the said containers.

When they reach them, they saw a pair of crew members, usually the ones that took care of the supplies of the ship, scratching their heads, the fucking containers were twice as big as a kodiak and both of them were armored as hell and with an encryption that even _EDI_ couldn’t crack.

As soon as Tor got to the place, both techs get the hell outta there, after saying goodbye to the XO of the ship, now this was her mess to deal with, the few that were not present in the story telling of the astartes and instead had to deal with his scary ship, were absolutely terrified of the man. Didn’t help that he is a fucking eight feet and half tower of muscle and metal capable of breaking them like twigs if he was in a bad mood.

“All-father be dammed” mussed Tor who was eying the odd lock of the container with a glace that surprise a little Miranda, it was the same glace that Orianna gave to her Christmas presents last Christmas.

“Something you recognize Iron Wolf?” ask Miranda, not wanting to pry in whatever business had the astartes but at the same time, quite curious about what was inside of the two cargo containers.

“This is a Sycorax DNA scanner” pointed Iron wolf to the locker of the cargo hold “ and before you ask, this is Not from your universe”.

Miranda catch her breath and turn her gaze to the piece of machinery in front of her, very surprised for the sudden news, that could mean that there is other like him walking out there?, it will be highly unprovable, she will already knew of them, as TIM would have hunted them as he has hunted Tor.

“Could you open it?” ask Miranda “ I do not want to interfere with your business as you wanted but I will ask you to inform me if there is any danger to the ship, from whatever could be inside those crates” ask politely Miranda who was walking on her toes every time she was around the Howler.

Tor doubted for a second, danger?, yes, him for starters but with a quick pass over her head thanks to his psychic powers, he discovered she really wanted to earn his trust and will let him be but she will stand in his way if he put the mission in danger.

He could respect that and respect goes a long way with Tor.

“Will do, Lawson” nodded Tor and Miranda smiled sincerely for the first time in his presence, it was an advance nonetheless.

“I will leave you to your devices then” said Miranda retreating back to the elevator.

Tor put his thumb over the scanner and allow the needle to pierce his flesh and took a sample from his blood, quickly the spirit machine inside the lock recognize the DNA inside his sampler and start to open all the maglock and other security measures all over the crate.

As soon as the doors opened and Tor could have a look on what was inside, he started laughing, a deep, grateful and violent laughter that scared the hell outta all the technicians in the hangar.

“ _Oh, this was too good to be true”_ he thought “ _now is time to show my new Aett what really means the word, war”_

  


Normandy SR-2/ Communications room/ 1000 AM

  


Shepard was tipping on the border of the table in the room, looking at the holographic display of the prison called Purgatory. She hated the place with a passion, there was something inside that gigantic freezer that enervates her completely, it could be that it was some kind of private running, no real answers to anyone except the Chief warden and as soon as she discovered he was a Turian, called Garrus and immediately her friend called Kuril a barefaced bastard.

The Turian equivalent of a person who you would never trust.

That only increased Shepards mistrust for the place, they only answer to one thing and it was a merc company, as the place was run by the Blue suns and as soon as she has entered the universe she has already won quite the reputation among the three biggest mercs guild out there.

Naming, The Blue suns, the Blood pack and the Eclipse.

And now she was going to enter into a giant freezer that holds some of the worst scum of the galaxy to recruit a bastard called Jack, who could very well be the most powerful human biotic ever known.

She had a migraine as soon as she started to rid all the intel the database of the _Normandy_ had about the place, that was a trap if she ever had seen one, entering in a Blue suns space orbit, fill to the core with troops and hostiles in the form of the prisoners and then take out Jack.

The only hope she had is that Cerberus was paying a fucking fortune for buying Jacks liberty and that was another thing that makes Shepard angry. Just pay enough money and this prisoner X is yours.

Slavery was illegal motherfuckers...

Garrus suggested that once they had Jack on board let Joker and _EDI_ had some shooting practice with the station, after all they had a new Thanix cannon to play with, and what better than a heavy armored station to test how deep the ray could cut through heavy plates?.

Unfortunately, she will not do something like that, well, they could be scum and all that but at the same time, among the mercs there was just people with a bad job and some prisoners could just be sacrificial idiots sent to this place to root and die. Enough problems did she had with the rest of the universe to add to the mix, the eternal grudge of some of the best and more widespread band of mercs of the universe, one that she had almost seen in every fucking planet out there.

She read again the mission details, she was going to take a four man team inside the place, pay the bill, took Jack and get the hell out of there, before she did something she will most probably regret later, like bombard all the place to hell with all the missiles she could muster. Could she ask Iron wolf for a demonstration of those Laser weapons of him?, Shepard wanted to see how real were those allegations and how could make him share those babies with the rest of the universe.

Garrus has already confirmed her that he was from a Universe of Nightmares, where only exist wars and all aliens are the sworn enemies of mankind, a universe of constant battles and carnage on where entire legions of people like him are needed.

Just the idea makes her shudder but at the same time, he was a godsend for her mission to stop the collectors and even bitch slap the Reapers with all the wonders the cyber werewolf could be able to take out of his damn wolf shaped helmet.

Still, there was improvement, at last he was capable of talk with Garrus without looking at him like he was taking measurements for a coffin and he was capable of interact with Mordin. Not that the Doctor was not clever enough to let him be, despite the doctor was almost bursting with curiosity and scientific knowledge, he was one of the few who has seen the astartes in combat and the memory did keep him from pestering the astartes too much.

However, all of this has happened because they were _Aett_ , a word that _EDI_ couldn’t translate, the most similar thing he had encounter was an old Norwegian word that means clan or blood related warriors.

They were nothing of the sort, but Shepard was trying to create a competent team of subjects, capable of taking down the collector menace and still survive to see another day. Hell, she still had a thousand things to do, among them finally reunite with her mom and give her some better explanations that the awkward conversation she has had through the phone, not to mention she wanted to put her hands on the necks of all the councilors back on the Citadel and strangle them to death for being such pussycats where she had been dragging her ass of all the fucking galaxy, doing her fucking job.

She knew Garrus will be more than happy to give her a hand in that matters, or any matter now that she thought about it, Garrus was the most loyal and sweetest friend she had ever had, and she knows she could trust her back to him any time of the day. That was the reason why she was taking him along for this ride, along other two.

One was Miranda, for being the most similar thing they had for a Cerberus representative in case of any problem with the payment and her biotic skills that would offer a good support for Shepards vanguard skills and Garrus sharp shooting. And the second was Iron wolf, her ace under her sleeve just in case everything goes south for the team and they had to get out of there shooting his way out, Iron wolf could tear apart walls, soldiers and mechs with the same easiness as she throws a biotic throw.

She wanted to see the astartes in some real combat and not just in the arena, to see if he has keep sharp like the time they fought together against the abomination called Saren, when he managed to evaporate him with a shoot of his combi-bolter, as he called his weapon.

Shepard will love to have one of those babies on her hands, those are real weapons; she has to agree with Iron wolf on that one; his bolter leaves any assault riffle out there like child toys.

The doors opened and Miranda enter the room, dress with her usual black and white cat suit but with a pistol and a machine gun comfortable resting on her hips as she walked in, well at last she had weapons now. Shepard had already tried to convince the woman to wear some kind of armor. The mission on the Omega arena has proved her that the biotic shields could be pierced and under that shields there was only a non-armored full body suit, that was the reason Shepard always dress armor on every mission, it was another safety layer for her Vanguard violent style of combat.

“Hello Miranda” saluted Shepard and Garrus wave the human as he was giving his Mattlock a last second calibration, now that he had some new mods to play with “ why are you not wearing armor again?”.

“I am not used to it Shepard” shrugged the beautiful woman “ I prefer not to compromise my mobility and combat skills carrying an armor”.

“Dammit, Miranda” sighed Shepard and Garrus discretely shook his head, it was an old argument between them and the only thing Miranda has proven to be relentless from all the demands Shepard made the first time she put a foot on the ship.

Before any of the two could start again, the doors open again and an eclipse covered all the light of the corridor in front of the communications room.

Standing in front of all the three of the present in the room, Tor stood with all his power armor, the same one Shepard saw in the armory of the _Fenris_ yesterday but there was not the mantle of the wolf that he had taken from Shaira in the citadel. Garrus twitched his mandibles when he saw Iron wolf, it was the same fucking one that save his talons back in the Citadel during Sarens fiasco but this time the armor was completely restored and the golden runes of the armor gleamed softly against the darkness of the corridor.

“Shepard” the voice of the Iron wolf came distorted from the speakers of his wolf helmet, something that they have already accustomed but it was impressive nonetheless.

“Ah, yes Iron Wolf” nod Shepard “ You and the rest of the presents in this room are going to enter in Purgatory to recover a possible recruit for the team” informed Shepard “ Miranda will be there to make sure all the papers are in order and the rest just in cause all the things goes south”.

“Oh, Shepard, it will be easy” said Miranda and blinked when all the people in the room flinched at her words.

“Now, you jinxed it” sighed Garrus a little amused for the Iron wolf to react like them.

“What?” ask Miranda who didn’t get the reference.

“You never said something is going to be easy” shook her head Shepard “ it just calling the devil, to fuck all the mission sideways” and now it was Iron Wolf who stiffen with a soft hiss from his enhanced mechanics.

“Ey Iron wolf” said Garrus who did notice the stiffening of the astartes when Shepard spoke of devils “ want to share the time when something easy went south?”.

“The Flesh bridges of Appala” said Iron Wolf “a simple extraction became a desperate resistance to keep a vital orbital artillery bunker for months ”.

“What?, months?” shouted Shepard not believing it “just what the hell were you up against?”.

“The total population of a hive-city along an invading fleet, the numbers of enemies were calculated along the twelve million enemies”.

That shut up everyone in the room as they look at Tor like he was some kind of madman, but the armor and the weapons, his loyal combi-bolter and the soft hum of _Redstorm_ reminded him what kind of horrendous place was Tors original universe.

“Spirits will be dammed” muttered Garrus.

“Well, that was bad luck” shrugged Shepard who fervently prayed to never be in a situation like that, not knowing how damn ironic the destiny was.

“Any case you will be my heavy hitter, I want you to took down any heavy mech or heavy trooper the Blue suns could throw at us, as we free and get our objective out of there” explained Shepard succinctly, the easier plan, the best for all.

“Understood commander” shrugged Iron wolf with a funny sound from his shoulder pads.

“Lets move people, the sooner I get out of there, the better, I don’t like the place” said Shepard adjusting her Mattlock.

“Agreed” chorused Garrus who had kind of prejudice against Kuril.

“Aren’t you all a little under armed?” ask Iron wolf a second after all of them had left the room and didn’t move to the armory but to the lab, in order to put their omnitools in sync for the mission.

All of them look at Iron wolf with curiosity.

“Err, we are not going to war Iron wolf” said Shepard “ but I do expect problems so that’s why we had weapons, just in case”.

“Seriously?” the wolf helmet twist a little to the right and Miranda had to suppress a squeal in the back of her mind, it was like a big adorable wolf, err, a ton metal wolf but still.

“Yes?” ask Shepard who didn’t see the problem here but wanted to know more about what the Iron wolf wanted to point out, in all honesty she believed, he was the one under armed.

“Shepard you only carry a damn rifle and a pistol, no knife and no grenades, your armor is too light to withstand substantial fire and your shield is on the same boat” started Iron wolf glaring daggers at them with his red lenses.

Damn he was capable of being fucking intimidating when he wanted.

“Lawson doesn’t wear any kind of armor, By the Allfather!, just a pair of ridiculous peashooters that will do nothing against the heavy plate of a YIMIR, even if she manages to overload it with that biotics of hers” keep ranting the giant and suddenly all of them feel very little and too enclosed in a corridor with an angry wolf.

“Garrus don’t even carry a single knife, just a pair of rifles, not a single grenade and his armor is still broken, who in the name of sanity, went to combat with a broken armor?”.

“Well, we are not going to a war Iron wolf” defended Shepard her team “ and we are inside a station, we don’t want to pull out the heavy artillery or we could cause hull damage and fuck the entire station”.

“Shepard, if they are going to hunt you and use YIMIR or even auto cannons, all of them had twice the fire power anyone of you carry” noted Tor who was very tired of how little accustom to war, was this dammed universe.

“Listen Shepard, I understand you are, what in this universe is considered more than well equipped, for this kind of mission” the sigh of the astartes make it look like he was a wolf snorting “ but I assure you, compared with me, is like you are wielding sticks and stones”.

To prove his point, Tor took out his Morkai pattern bolter in one hand and a bolter pistol on the other.

“This are bolter guns, any of them had a 75 caliber ammunition who pack four times or more the punch any of your weapons had” he let the guns maglocked to his armor and show her _Redstorm._

“This sword will cut through your shields and armor like they were wet paper” Tor show Shepard the knife, well sword for her, that he carries over his left boot “ this will do the same as the shields will not activate and your armor except, perhaps Garrus, will not be able to block its edge”.

Tor took out a pouch on his right a trio of balls with a button on them.

“This are the common frag grenades, eight second till it burst and I have five krak just in case” ended his tirade Tor leaving Shepard stunned.

“And I consider myself poorly armed” ended his statement Tor and Shepard was at loss of words, the fucking astartes was packing enough firepower to tear apart the station and he was calling it, not enough.

“Talk about overkill” chuckled Garrus and won a death glare from Shepard, making him shut up immediately.

“Look Iron wolf” said Shepard reminding herself that she was in front of a beast who looks like a man, who has been fighting for more years than she would like to count “ I recognize you are ready for a Total war, but we are going into a supposedly non-hostile territory that’s why we carry weapons but we do not enter riding the Mako and shooting everything on sight, we could cause too much collateral damage otherwise”.

Suddenly Shepard blinked and stared very intently towards the pistol holster Tor had on his left.

“Wait a frigging minute, didn’t you say you didn’t have any more bolter guns in your armory?!” accused Shepard “ then what the hell is that?”.

“A bolter pistol” shrugged Tor “ a lesser version of my own combi bolter made with the materials available in this universe, a cheap copy of a real one but still adequate to deal with most of the enemies I have fought so far”.

“You, you...” Shepard was at lost of words and just with a last indignant glare turn her back to the astartes and stomped past the laboratory.

They could see the blinking face of Mordin who eyed curiously the cursing figure of Shepard and then notice the presence of the rest of the ground team over the corridor near the Comm room.

“Ah” exhaled the Salarian “ ground team for purgatory, nice selection, testing loyalties, a good friend, and our mysterious and powerful guest, highly armed for what I can see, enhanced armor, those bolters, the fascinating sword, interesting”.

“Breath doc” laughed Garrus following his commander who was already tapping in the entrance of the tunnel.

“Doctor Solus” nodded Miranda.

Tor walked into the laboratory and past near the doctor, the turian was one thing but the insane interest the lizard has show for his sacred tech was a very disturbing thing, the least he had to interact with the damn croaked chipmunk, the better.

“Coming or what?!” roared Shepard who was in a very, very bad mood now that she know that Tor had those wonderful weapons nursing dust inside her own ship has made her almost explode.

He was going to share, fuck yes, he was going to share, even if she had to crack his stubborn skull with a can opener and pour a ton of fucking common sense and rainbows inside that metallic egghead of his, fucking wolf hiding that secret from her, and still he hadn’t given nothing for her baby, those lasers will save her babies ass, every time she entered in battle.

It will not happen again, no way in hell she was going to let his ship to be destroyed again.

Nursing a very inopportune headache just seconds before a mission, she glared daggers to the gray and gold giant after her, damn she was going to make him pay, the fucking idiot, so much he could do and he was sat over that treasury like a miserly over his money.

The door of the tunnel opened and they walked inside the facility.

At first sight, Shepard has to admit, the place was very well equipped, the tunnel and the corridor was solid and enforced, just in case a fire fight ensues with any possible runaways, now she was getting why Iron wolf said they need more fire power.

Well, she had all the fire power she could muster that do not include a damn grenade launcher, that was not her style, thanks to her biotic powers she can dish a ton of damage but compared to the fusion weapon Iron wolf was carrying on his back pack, it will be; as he so crudely has told them; like sticks and stones.

They walked in a very long and crystal surrounded corridor, so they could see the space outside the tunnel and the _Normandy_ docked under them, Shepard noticed with approval that all the ship was clear from any Cerberus symbol over the hull.

It was the first thing she had done as soon as she got her baby back.

No cerberus symbol aboard or on the hull of the ship, fleeing in terminus under the banner of Cerberus, heck in all the citadel space for what she knows, was a complete suicide as anyone outside with a cannon and half a brain will try to shut them down.

Yeah, Cerberus had that kind of reputation.

She noticed that the corridor was kind of large compared with the usual, it seems that they must have bigger transit than the common station and prison must have and considering that she was there to pick up one of the prisoners, it didn’t surprise her too much.

Something that kind of remind her of slavery, she was buying the freedom of a prisoner called Jack, the most powerful human biotic alive for the moment in the universe and if the dossiers of the Delusional man; love the nickname, Iron wolf hit the nail with that one; were half correct, the bastard had serious problems with the authority and that could be a real pain in the ass to deal with.

The rest of the team walked at a leisure peace after her, everyone of them paying attention to their surroundings but at the same time lost in their own mussing, after all, not a minute ago, Tor has just bitch slapped all of them with his weapons and that has led them to some mussing about how they could manage to put their hands in some delicacies Iron wolf had nursing dust in the armory of the _Fenris_.

They could see a bunch of blue suns in the distance, all of them behind a barricade of modular metal slates acting as barricades. The majority of them seemed Turians and all of them were nursing weapons of some kind, from a bunch of carnifex pistols to a couple of avengers and vindicators, for a merc band they were indeed very well armed.

Shepard run some strategies on her mind about how to deal with this situation, she will use her biotic charge to pass through the cover and shoot with her Mattlock everything on sight, meanwhile Garrus while take care of the further threats like the pair of vindicator wielding Turians. She was a bit unsure about how will Iron wolf and Miranda react, the latter will more probably raise her shields and shoot with her tempest machine gun to the nearest objective, sending any incoming menace flying with the help of her biotic throw.

But Iron wolf...well, he could shoot that monster gun on him, charge with his red sparking sword or just send all of them flying as he was a biotic too, she saw him support an arm of Sovereign during the battle for the citadel just with his biotic powers or psy powers, or whatever he could do, it was a freaking headache just to think how easily Tor, broke her mental schemes.

This could get interesting indeed, but for the moment, she will play safe and took the diplomatic route, after all they have already pay a shit ton of money for the ass of Jack, and if something bothers Shepard, was to waste resources.

She was trying to raise a war against a race of sentient machines that will eradicate all sentient life on the universe and just wait for another fifty thousand years until they will do it again; for the moment no one except a very short few, has believed her and help her in her crusade. So few, that it was almost pitiful but hope was never lost, she will fight to the end, even if she had to bite their damn metallic necks with her own teeth.

Iron wolf was running his own scenarios and once again felt sorely disappointed.

He couldn’t see marking of any automatic defenses in the corridor, just a barricade and six guards, armed with light weapons and a pair of assault rifles, well, perhaps it is enough if you are dealing with a bunch of unarmed prisoners but considering the biotic there are out there and how those weapons could be stolen by the aggressor, he couldn’t but felt that this last line of defense was kind of useless.

Shepard walked to the guards, and they stiffened visibly once they saw the massive form of the Iron wolf in the back of the group, it was quite the impression for every one who is not accustomed to his gigantic frame and wolf-theme armor and paraphernalia.

That put them nervous and Shepard cursed inside her mind, nervous merc are trigger happy mercs that could make a mistake and make this end in a showdown of bullets and biotic powers fast.

“Easy guards” give a step ahead Shepard changing the attention of the guards to the giant armored wolf to her “ we are here to retrieve a prisoner, I´m Commander Shepard, Specter of the Council”.

“Ah, eh...yeah, yes, Warden Kuril told us” said one of the guards, taking his hand off of the carnifex in his holster and raising his onmitool activated it with the usual yellow hologram.

“Ok, Commander, you are clear to enter but you will have to leave your weapons and that freaking mech here” said the guard eying Iron wolf under his helmet with no little apprehension.

“No weapons allowed inside, except the ones of the guard, usual protocol” shrugged another Turian who was behind the cover and had already a hand on the grip of his vindicator.

“ _Yeah sure, to the hell with this, this is a fucking trap!”_ screamed Shepard inside her mind with a physical unconscious and ferocious snarl in her face.

Garrus noticed how the commander has reacted and cursed, he has only seen that same face every time Shepard was about to tear some poor bastard in half with her biotics.

“And my usual protocol is to keep my fucking weapons with me, thank you” replied Shepard with a hand on his carnifex.

“Commander, we can not allow you to enter into facility with so many weapons and that thing” pointed the turian to Iron wolf “ its not safe, please understand”.

“ _Yeah sure, not fucking safe for you piece of shit”_ said Shepard inside of her mind and tightened the grip on her gun.

“The guns stay where they are” said Shepard in a tone that didn’t admit any objection, gripping the handle of her carnifex and making her eyes glow blue with biotic energy. The guard stiffened and one did try to raise his weapon but the thunderous hammering of the ammo of the bolter of Iron wolf resonated in all the corridor like a very and loud advertizing.

The hole of the cannon was a big as the turian head.

“Stand down everyone!” shouted a new voice and the blue suns immediately low their weapons but Iron wolf keep the bolter pointed and ready for make his target explode like a melon under a missile.

The new arrival was a big turian without any kind of marking on his face, the way he moved speak volumes about who was in charge inside the facility, as soon as he appeared, all the ground team recognized the Warden Kuril, the mastermind behind the Purgatory station.

“Everybody calm down, Shepard is here for business, she can keep her weapons but the mech is off limits Shepard, is too dangerous to let that thing loose” say Kuril with iron in the voice and Shepard just smiled wickedly, something that nerved all the guards who didn’t like that smile at all.

Garrus recognized it and chuckled internally, Shepard was ready for one of her usual antics, just like the old times, where she loved to boast about her baby; the _Normandy SR-1_ ; or the Mako in the hangar bay or any of the topnotch Specter weaponry they could relinquish for their Saren Hunt crusade all over the galaxy.

“Oh, he is not a mech, aren’t you Iron Wolf?” smiled Shepard to the hulk of gray and golden after her.

“No I’m not” replied Iron wolf and the rasping metallic voice of his helmet speakers did not help to the cause of convincing the rest to accept his claims of not be a damn mech.

The arm of Iron wolf was still with the bolter raised to the guard, who was gulping loudly under his helmet, the cannon of the weapon the giant was pointing at him was more than enough to make anyone shudders, specially if your armor and shield are the light class that all the ground common forces of the Blue suns carry.

“You hear the man” turn her face Shepard to the warden “ so, are going to do business or we just walk away of this piece of junk?” Shepard was more for the latter than the former, this place was a cesspit and she wanted to shower just by standing there.

Kuril look at the mass of the Iron wolf for a seconds and then spoke again.

“Let them pass” said to his guards that relaxed visibly now that they don’t have to deal with whatever the hell was that thing in gray and golden “ even if they keep their weapons, this is a full armored space station, we can deal with some loose cannons”.

Iron Wof snort beats Shepard as he maglocked his bolter to his backpack.

Without replying Kuril signaled them to follow him into the corridor, that leads to the first arm of the station, one of the thirty blocks the place had for prisoners containment, they walk in silence for the first hundred meters until they hit the crystal windows of the corridor. There they saw a giant metallic arm picking a pod of cryostasis and moving it to another place, not to so far under them, a pair of guards were leading a queue of prisoners, every one of them had a striking resemblance to beasts and as soon as they meet another queue started the provocations and violence.

From the floor under them, emerged two pilars that shoot a mass effect containment field that separate the fighters before the guards could zap them into submission and make them march again. Shepard saw all of it, and she only wanted to nuke all this place, innocents be dammed, she was not so sure how many of them were left in the place.

“We are practically scape-proof” boasted Kuril who was waiting for them as they look at one of the inside rooms that joint two of the thirty arms of containment “ even if they managed to get out of their cells and out of cryo, they are in the middle of the space, with no ship and years light from the closest relay”.

Shepard moved her face from the window to the warden and the feral snarl on the corner of her lips make Garrus a little nervous, she was going to smash the warden, until he was just a smear on the plastic of the corridors floor.

“Sloppy, careless, useless” announced the Iron wolf and the other two of the ground team did move a step aside from him as a tiny lighting moved all over his frame, like it appeared at the same time of his anger.

“What?” snapped Kuril “What do you mean?”.

“Dependance of Eezo, light armored guards, slow and not well maintained field generators” numerated Iron wolf what he has just saw “ I am honestly surprised how it is possible that all this place has not been torn apart already”.

“Humpf” crossed Kuril his arms over his chest “for years I have been ruling this place and not even a single time, during all those years, have been any scape”.

Iron wolf snorted in sadness and resignation.

“Not a real surprise Turian” said Iron wolf pointing to the protesting queue of prisoners “they are to idiotic for something so simple; they wouldn’t even recognize an opportunity even if it bites them in the ass”.

Not very sure how to take that remark, Kuril shrugged and keep guiding the ground team in the deeper places of the entrance, reaching the corridors that guide to the different parts of the station transformed into prison.

Shepard and Garrus share a glance now that they detected the markings of automatic defenses installed all over the corridor, on floor and walls there are some places that screams for a trained eye. Miranda on the other hand was more interested in the wolf alongside her, the lighting all over his armor surface has put her on edge, that was not a biotic effect, neither an overload like the ones the sentinels and biotics like her could take out her their sleeves.

Another scientific mystery of the Iron Wolf, along all his arsenal and weaponry, that seems to defy all what it preconceived about physics laws. She had the suspect that the title of Rune priest that he flaunts is much more than a single title and that lighting and how he always seems to know what the surrounding people think, not to mention his inhuman strength and how he keep an entire arm of Sovereign on the air for enough time to save Shepards ass, back in the citadel battle.

He was not a biotic, but something much, much more dangerous, all on him defies this universe and make her think about how the things could have been, if the humanity didn’t depend on the tech the Proteans left form them. He has already told them, that he posses laser tech, a laser tech that even the salarian, who are the most advanced in this field, could even develop yet, he had infantry laser cannons deployed on his ship, the _Fenris_ , something that will toss out of the windows all they know about war.

Rendering the shields useless and the kinetic weaponry obsolete.

But he hadn’t said a word about it, Miranda suspects that the astartes was proving them, was seeing if they were trustworthy enough to reveal some of his secrets to them.

She has seen through the tales of the last two days, and compose a very grim picture of the kind of universe the Iron wolf came from, it was not an exaggeration that there was only war and they barely cover the first years of the imperium as he has called it.

The picture of the iron metallic things massacring the humans was a very clear reminder of how dangerous the artificial intelligences could be, if they are giving free rein. Just the geth are the tip of the iceberg, there was entire library of things that the humanity don’t know about IA and now that _EDI,_ was acting kind of odd, Miranda has double check all the safety measures the IA had on them and for her surprise they were perfectly well. The tales of the dark days of technology as poetically Iron wolf have called those prime days of the human fall, there are kind of disturbing and frightening, unfortunately there was almost nothing that has survived before that point; not really a surprise considering the damages the iron men has done to the humankind and how they had almost thrown back the humanity to the stone age.

The astartes was like her, crafted, created and furnace for one single purpose.

War.

She knew her father wanted the perfect human specimen the humanity could offer, she was crafted for perfection and given all the tools she could need to be the perfect heir for the Lawson, however she turned her back on him and his delusions, when she discovered about her twin younger sister, as crafted as her, but without her dark past of shady operations. The main reason Miranda was in Cerberus, was because TIM could provide protection to both her and Orianna; it was the only organization beyond the Alliance that could provide the resources and the protection both needed to get out of the hands of her megalomaniac father.

But she had discovered now that perhaps this man could offer her much more; the tech he had is a fucking dream, laser tech, armor, weaponry, non mass effect tech, cybernetics, the list goes on and in all honesty she wanted to see how deep the rabbit hole was. On the other hand, she was scared of the astartes, such a creature like him is not done by a whim, such frightening war potential must had a purpose and she resonated a little with what he had revealed everyone the last night.

Do you have a purpose?, that single question was one of the reasons Miranda ditch her father and free herself, for her father was nothing but a disposable tool that would be substituted in due time when Orianna will reach adulthood. She didn’t pay any thoughts about what Kuril was saying about how the place run, it was clear that he had all the place under running under his iron hand with a mix of brutality and subtle scams, forced to the governments and worlds the prisoners were from.

It was kind of clever, in exchange for money and supplies, the warden will keep the worst prisoners of half the sectors of the galaxy, frozen and quiet, until they had to face trial or the death warrant is sign. If the governments didn’t want to pay the fees for the safekeeping of the prisoners, then Kuril will release them in an unspecified time and place on the surface of their home planets as soon as the contract expired.

Miranda lips cornered upwards slightly when Shepard almost shoot the bastard in the face but she managed to keep herself composed and just shout him how that was a damn scam, the turian simply shrugged and retort back telling her that this facility keep some of the worst scum of the universe and don’t dare her to argue about the results. So far, that was a valid point, indeed he produced results, through scamming entire planets but no doubt, the place was a gold mine for the Blue suns. As it was easy to defend and maintain, with the adequate equipment and produce the hell of a constant income for the merc band.

Miranda noticed how Iron wolf was constantly watching the back of the turian, all his body language screamed of barely contained violence, his hands were already clenched into fists and there was some soft hum emanating from his armor, making the golden runes glow like soft leds. Kuril guided them into a crossroad and pointed to one corridor with his hand, Miranda noticed the revenant rifle on his back and understood how was possible for a single merc captain to allow himself to have such an expensive weapon.

The best on the market so far, well until the bolter of the Iron wolf made appearance of course, now she was thinking that perhaps the universe has been complacent with their weaponry now that the Thermal clip tech made his appearance.

“Go straight into that corridor and you will reach the delivery office” shrugged Kuril “ there you will fill some paperwork and Jack will be delivered to you” informed of the procedure.

“Welcome to Purgatory, Shepard” laughed softly the warden walking into the other corridor.

“Yeah, tourist paradise” answered Shepard to the retreating form of the Turian and then back to her team “ I hate this place”.

“We can always blow it” shrugged Iron wolf “ the _Normandy SR-2_ is more than a match for their gardian laser and space defenses, if we reach the generators” Iron wolf pointed to the corridor Kuril has gone not a minute ago “ I can program all this place to blow into smithereens in fifteen minutes; more than enough to reach the dock bay and get ourselves out of this place”.

All the ground team look at him with surprise and no little apprehension for the violence his words carry, however Shepard smiled to the man and shook her red haired head.

“Thanks Iron wolf, but we will have to play nice, at last until we have Jack with us” ordered Shepard “ still, I appreciate the gesture” add with a chuckle.

Iron Wolf shrugged and then all of them noticed that he was not joking around, that he already had a plan, and a route to blow this place to kingdom come, opting for let it go, Shepard took point and took Miranda with her.

“So...” said Garrus walking at the left side of Iron wolf “ how will you invade this place?”.

“Light bombardment and then five assault squads over key points” said Iron wolf “ this place is not prepared for a sustained siegue, they could release the prisoners and they will gain a very motivated temporary troops but criminals made poor soldiers, and they would soon be exterminated or they will turncoats at the first promise of freedom or even vengeance over their captors”.

“Damn” cursed Garrus “ and her I was hoping that you were joking about destroying this place”.

“This glorified space hulk has some significance for you Vakarian?” ask Iron wolf and Garrus talon bumped, at last he was no more Turian, but Vakarian, it was quite the progress.

“Nah” dismiss Garrus “ is just that we are her to a pick up, not to destroy the place or at last not yet” said Garrus who knows the luck Shepard had with the missions.

“Good to know” snorted Iron wolf “ but I will always keep my bolter lock and load, The Emperor Protects but a loaded bolter helps too”.

“Wise astartes” laughed Garrus who just saw Shepard discussing something with one of the guards as he was in front of a cell.

Inside the crystal cell, a guard was beating the shit out of a prisoner, Miranda has an expression of disgust and Garrus soon join her in showing what in a turian face will pass as the same, Shepard is the one that was acting the most vocal about all the picture.

“This bastard knows who kill another prisoner yesterday and he is going to tell us; warden Kuril is very clear about that point” said the guard who was piss off too “No death goes unpunished”.

“But this useless you blockhead” retorted Shepard “ he can talk if you busted his damn mouth and lungs”.

“And he is nothing but a sacrificial pawn” said Iron wolf staring intently at the prisoner.

Suddenly his helmet was covered by a tiny layer of frost and everyone near him feel the sudden impulse to shudder and not because the frost, but for a pang in the back of their brains that told them to feel fear.

“A shit called Brimi or Billy, killed a prisoner yesterday and make this weak willed fool take the guilt” announced Iron wolf and then continued moving along the corridor without even glance in the direction of the cell.

Shepard caught him in a second and walk alongside him.

“What the fuck was that Iron wolf?, I almost feel the need to run out of my skin” hissed Shepard, Garrus and Miranda were in the same boat but at the same time they managed to appeared more composed.

“My psi powers, I read the mind of that pathetic human and discover what was he hiding” said like it was nothing out of the blue.

“Wait a fucking second...are you telepathic?” asked Shepard with her jaw almost hitting the floor.

“Partially commander, my real talent lies in other psy disciplines, if you attend to the Imperial classification of psychic powers and capabilities” confess Iron wolf who knew that his forte in the telepathy discipline was actually defending his mind instead of reading other minds.

But the two years alone in this All father forgotten frigging universe has done wonders to his psy powers as he had not to dampers it as much as he had in the past, due to the absence of any disruptions in the warp. No demons, there are other leviathans in the warp but they are like whales, just get out of their way and you will be fine, and considering he could very well be the unique psyker in the universe so far, it will be highly unlikely that they leviathans will be disrupted any time soon.

“Fuck Iron wolf, simple fuck...what the hell are you and why the hell didn’t tell me sooner?” Shepard shoulder lumped a little “ I know you want us to demonstrate we are worthy of your trust but for fucks sake, just told us things like this so we don’t freak out every single time” ranted Shepard a little tired.

“I am a son of Fenris” barked like a laugh Iron wolf “ and all will be revealed in due time, but for now...”

“Shut up pathetic little worm!” shouted Iron wolf to one of the prisoners on the cells at their right, the man on the inside has been trying to call their attention “ your own cowardly put your there, now grow a pair and next time, rip the throat of that fool with your teeth”.

Shepard was a little take aback by the sudden growl of the Iron wolf and so was the prisoner who just limped backwards in his cell, trying to hide from the red lenses of the astartes.

“If you want to win your freedom, start from being worthy of being liberated, stop whining and lowering your head at the first shout” Iron wolf was burying a hole in the head of the prisoner who just fainted with and strangled gurgle when they past in front of his cell.

“Spirits Iron wolf, why did you kill this poor bastard?” asked Garrus observing the seizure of the prisoner with no little apprehension.

“I did not kill the worm, although he deserves it, just give him a psy kick on the ass to put his thoughts in order” shrugged the Iron wolf and stopped in front of a big metallic door with a red led in the middle of it.

Shepard shook her head, this astartes was too much for her, it was like dealing with an emo teenager with the attitude and body of a krogan on steroids.

Getting her mind in the mission, Shepard moved to the door and immediately the door opened, they could see a big white and metal room, with a single technician working on a terminal, at the farthest end of the room, another big metal door was waiting for them.

“Your delivery is in the other room” said the technician with a grumpy voice, focused on his terminal.

Shepard didn’t even look at the man and instead let Miranda deal with this shit, she wanted to pick Jack and get out of here pronto, she was starting to nurse a gigantic headache, and all of it in great part was thanks to the antics of the fucking astartes at her side.

Taking point, she opened the metallic door, just to see nothing.

She blinked a pair of times and keep staring dumbfounded to the empty space in front of her.

“Get inside the cell Shepard” sound the voice of Kuril over the speakers of the room “ you are worth of a lot of money and...”

Kuril couldn’t end his phrase as Shepard has already shot down the speakers with her carnifex, she was grinning her teeth and looking at the exploded speakers like they were the responsible of all this fiasco.

The door at the other end of the room reopened again and a pair of Fenris mech appeared, running right to them, Miranda overloaded one and Garrus simply put a burst of accurate shoots into the head of the mech. Shepard shouted in rage and smash the pair of canine mechs against the walls, however all of them took cover when a squad of blue suns entered the room, firing their weapons all over the cover the ground team has jumped in.

All, except Iron Wolf, who simply take his bolter and ignoring the impacts his armor had suffered; the kinetic bullets couldn’t even scratch the surface; let his weapon roar and take his prey.

The first blue suns died when his helmet and head just exploded, his shield was useless against a bullet that it was like a missile, the next blue sun after him died from the shock and blood loss of having his left arm and shoulder completely rip out of his body in a shower of gore.

The sentinel of the group was tipping furiously instructions to his drone behind a solid metal table but the bolter projectile pierce through the table, the shield and the armor of his torso, ripping him in half.

The other two blue suns couldn’t even freak out about their comrades gruesome deaths as they suffer similar endings, when their bodies erupted in an explosion of flesh and blood, their shields did stop the bolter projectile, so the bullet only destroyed them and do not pass through them like it has happened for the first victim.

Two fucking seconds.

That’s all Iron wolf has needed to obliterate five targets.

Steeping outside of the room, Iron wolf just snarled to the incoming mercs at the other arm of the crossroad they have already pass, it seems that the warden didn’t want to let them slip by any chance and had tossed another dozen, soon to be dead meat, on their way.

For a few seconds, none of the rest of the ground team said nothing, just stare at the corpses and the form of the Iron wolf, who was already moving without any haste to engage the reinforcements, they couldn’t see the face under the wolf helmet but no doubt he was sporting a very annoyed face.

“I...that...what the frak?” snorted Shepard and Garrus nodded, as he looked at the grievous wounds the bolter has done to the corpses of the blue suns.

“Its...quite impressive” simply said Miranda who felt very unprotected suddenly.

They just stared blankly for a long moment, not entirely believing what they have just saw, after all not all days one saw a weapon capable of eviscerating shields, armor and flesh, and then do the same thing to the next victim after the first one.

“Dammit!” shouted Shepard running to join Iron wolf in the corridor “ like hell I am going to be left behind!”.


	6. Wulfen effect 6

She run and caught Iron wolf easily who was at seconds of engage the dozen of mercs, with his bolter just hanging from his hand with easiness, despite the weapons weighted a ton, his red lenses were fixated on the incoming blue suns and for his body language, he means business. Shepard run and took cover behind a side of the corridor, shooting a burst from his Mattlock and destroying the shield of one of the mercs, Garrus has already extended his custom mantis and with his usual accuracy pierce the shield and face plate of another one; the body stumbled for a little before falling to the ground, dead.

Miranda carefully searched for his objective and soon she channeled her biotic talent into a mass of electromagnetic waves that fried the enemy sentinel drone, before it could reach them and explode in a cascade of sparks. Iron wolf just huffed and ignoring the surrounding shooting; only a few lucky shoots did actually manage to damage his armor; he kept walking to the mercs, raise his bolter and shoot an adequate response to the incoming fire.

As space wolf ;or Vlka Fenryka as they were called on the first days; he was very fond of his dexterity with the ax and the sword, but this universe seems to feel a pathological revulsion for close combat, only the krogans are the ones sensitive enough to always carry a fucking knife or even a fucking cub, just in case things get close and personal.

Asari commandos are in the same boat, they depend too much of their biotic powers, when one single bullet can kill both the most naive of the maidens or the most cunning of the matriarchs with the same easiness. Ignor Thunderwolf put it into words, “people can outsmart me, maybe, but I have never seen anyone outrun a bullet”. Wise man indeed, his heavy bolter spoke in his regard most of the times but that doesn’t dismiss his pearls of wisdom from time to time.

His augmented senses has already picked up all the hostiles in front of him and calculate the best strategy to clear the corridor, however he wanted to see how Shepard and the other fare in a skirmish, this thing was not worthy of being even called combat. The difference was so wide it was almost pitiful, if they had some kind of heavy weapon like a grenade launcher or a missile launcher, then perhaps he will take them more seriously but, by the fangs of Morkai, they only had assault rifles and machine guns.

Tor raise his bolter and blow the head of three of the mercs, already diminishing their numbers in half as Shepard and the rest keep scoring deathly hits on the mercs; well, at last Shepard and the others knows what they are doing, they could be at the same level at the elite astra military he saw in the battles for Cadia.

Solid, professional and lethal, the respect for the Aett of Shepard grow up a notch, grow to a notch one; but still, they were not astartes, and that is quite the insurmountable difference, unless they went to the most hellish augmentations in order to reach the perfection the Emperor gifted to his chosen ones.

Shepard glow blue furiously for a sec and then she transformed in a blue meteorite that smashed into the body of one of the mercs, caving his chest like it was cardboard, as soon as she landed she started shooting both her carnifex and mattlock to both sides, sending the squad of mercs into disarray.

That was quite the risky tactic, Iron wolf approved with all his two hearts, it was like seen an enthusiastic blood claw in his first deployment, however, Shepard remind him more to the crazy sisters of battle called Seraphims but without the jumpack and lesser weaponry and armor. It was almost surprising how little had the weaponry developed in this universe, once they found the Mass effect, is like all the tech just stopped.

It was different in his case as the sacred designs of the Machine-God are perfect as they are, and only when the machines need a change, do they admit the change in their designs, after all, it were his brothers who discovered the annihilator during the Skarath crusade when the spirit machines of the tanks raged for a better anti tank weaponry. The Long fangs sacrificed their laser cannons and the Iron priest put them into the sacred predator chassis; the modifications went so well that the wolves continued to use the perfect anti-tank new born predator; calling it Annihilator. But here, in this universe they do not adapt to war because all the races in the universe used the same weaponry, the same tech, the same weapons and tactics...Iron wolf felt a nauseating headache when he discovered it during two pitiful skirmished he had with the batarians; they dared to call those occasions, battles.

Iron wolf stop firing his bolter, after all there were only four mercs left; and the rest of the team had it completely covered; and just keep walking into the position of the mercs, one of them extend a scimitar shotgun and pointed at Shepards back, who was very busy caving the skull of a merc with a powerful biotic punch. Iron wolf took notes that the girl had quite the left hook, specially if she enforced it with that biotic of hers.

“Get out of the fire line Iron wolf!” shout Garrus by the com-link “ I can't cov..” whatever was going to say next die on his throat when Iron wolf took care of the two remaining mercs.

With the left hand, Iron wolf toss his knife to the chest of the last merc who was shooting burst after burst of bullets against Miranda and Garrus position, the knife pierced his armor; as the shield did not activate because the knife was not a subsonic bullet; and split his heart in half. With the right hand, he disarmed the shotgun merc and proceed to slam the said shotgun against his head, the fist impact shattered the shield and busted the lips of the merc. After that hit, the shotgun was completely destroyed and tossing it over his shoulders, Iron wolf grab the neck of the remaining merc and twisted it with a sickening crunch.

Once again, it has taken him three seconds and only because the merc had survived the first shotgun smash against his face.

A heavy silence impose the in the corridor as the ground team check themselves and the others for wounds, meanwhile Iron wolf just keep walking like the combat has been nothing but a little breeze during a stroll. He walked past Shepard and nodded her in respect, something that surprise her a little but soon she shouted at his back.

“Ey, wait a frigging second, you oversized tin man!” protested Shepard running to get at his side “how come Kuril has managed to put this trap on you if you are a telepath?” asked Shepard really curious and now more determined than ever to get the fucking astartes to fabric those babies of his for all the fucking Alliance.

“I told you Shepard” shrugged Tor letting his autosenses pick up any menaces in the corridor ahead of them and trying to open a connection between him and the station machinery “ my real talent is not the telepathy, I can prey on the weak willed and even then, I require direct eye contact and all of my focus”.

“You have to explain me that” shook her head Shepard “dammit, Iron wolf, you don’t trust us, and we can not prove you that we are trustworthy, this is nuts for all of us” ranted the woman and unknown to her, Iron wolf was already, subtly scanning her mind and finding her worthy of his trust.

“Do not falter Shepard” thundered the Iron wolf and she stiffened felling something on her mind “ for the Emperor protects and there is always a path to victory, no matter the cost”.

“Deep” smiled meekly the woman as Garrus and Miranda join them near the entrance of what it looked like a command room “ is that yours or did you pick it from someones book?”.

“A little of both” laughed the Iron wolf and tip on the panel of the door, just to snarl at the stubborn terminal that denies them pass.

“Useless piece of crap” cursed the Iron wolf and smashed the panel, ripping out the surface board and dig into the cables under them, after a bit of tweaking, the door glow red and slowly turn into green.

“The most brutal way of hacking a door I have ever seen” chuckled Garrus “ except the time, Wrex did a similar thing but he headbutted the door until in opened” remind him to Shepard who smiled at the memory.

Miranda activate her omnitool and check for something.

“Commander, I am picking a signal from inside, someone is messing with the life support of the cry cell of Jack” announced Miranda.

“Commander, the Blue suns are trying to hack the dry dock of the _Normandy_ ” announced Edi suddenly from the comlink of all the ground team.

“Incoming” said Iron wolf suddenly and walked back to the corridor, they have crossed.

His body covered all the team from the fire of another squad of Blue suns running down the corridor along a bunch of LOKI class mechs, his body quickly absorbed the scarce fire and soon he returned the fire with his bolter, blowing into pieces, a trio of LOKI like they were just scraps.

“Shit” cursed Shepard “ when it rains, it pours” sighed and Garrus blinked, human humor, he wouldn’t never fully understand it.

“Miranda, you and I will go inside” ordered Shepard “ we have to save Jack, Garrus with Iron wolf, give him fire cover and...”.

“Don’t worry about me Shepard” cut Iron wolf killing another mech with his bolter and soaking all the incoming fire like it was nothing “ I can handle this, the prisoner is the top priority of the mission”.

“Ok, but as soon as you end them, I want you back in the Normandy ASAP” said Shepard “ I want you to defend it from whatever they throw to my baby”.

Iron Wolf stood there and Shepard was about to enter into the chamber when Iron wolf suddenly talk and all of them freeze on the spot.

“Time to make a decision Shepard, do you trust me?”.

“Er...” said Shepard suddenly surprised for the tone of the Iron wolf “well, yes, you are a pain in the ass and had more secrets than all the salarian government together, but you have done nothing bad to us and have helped us in your own grumpy and tight fist way, but, yes I do trust you”.

“Then allow me to pay you back for that trust” said the Iron wolf and turn his wolf face plate to the mercs.

“ _EDI_ activate Servitors one and two” said Iron wolf “ deploy them in the dry dock and activate protocol Fang”.

“Acknowledged Iron Wolf” replied the IA and all the group blinked a pair of times before Iron wolf toss a frag grenade to the incoming mercs and sweep the corridor with his bolter, no matter where they were taking cover, the brutal caliber of the gun pierced through cover and protections with equal easiness.

Shepard, Garrus and Miranda joined the metal storm and soon all the reinforces were nothing but smeared shadows against walls and floor.

Miranda activated her omnitool and entered in the room first, dodging a bullet from the nervous technician inside and blowing his head with a shoot from her machine gun; kicking the corpse out of her way, immediately turn her attention to the terminal.

Garrus took cover near the door when Shepard entered in the room and don’t even glance to the corpse.

“What have you done Iron wolf?” ask Shepard “ and how come you can order _EDI_ around?”

“I deploy my own mechs to counter the assault to the _Normandy_ ” answered Iron Wolf “ and EDI is the spirit machine of your ship, she will obey any logic order that help to the protection of her life and the life of the crew”.

Iron wolf covered the door with his body and Garrus entered looking over the glass of the room to the cell and the two YIMIR mechs under them, whistling for the security measures they have deployed just to keep Jack quiet.

Miranda tapped frenetically in her onmitool, hacking the protocol of the cell and releasing the lever that will open the cell but at the same time all the cells in all the blocks, starting a massive riot inside the prison.

“There you are” smiled Miranda “ this will free Jack from her cryo but it will release almost all prisoner of the place”.

“Good” said Shepard, putting the release down and starting a massive riot all over the place “lets get Jack out of here”.

Suddenly the capsule start hissing and all three of them could look how the Yimir started to move and point to the table on where a skinny tattooed and bald young woman was tied to as she exited the cryo and slowly awoke to reality.

“What?, Jack is a woman?” muttered Garrus “ I thought it was a male name”.

The could only observe speechless how the girl awoke and in a show of strength and ferocity, broke apart the restrictions and free herself but what really put them off was how the girl didn’t feel intimidated at all by the two menacing YIMIR who were pointing at her with their heavy machine guns.

Instead, she just glow like a blue star and smashed herself against one of them, completely obliterating the mech and at the same time, almost blow the cabin on where they were standing, the crystal exploded by the sudden shock wave. All three of them covered their faces from the explosion and the crystal shrapnel that rain on them, when they could react, the girl has already cleaved a path under them, and into the station, the alarm was resounding loudly and flashing a red light all over the destroyed cell and control cabin.

Iron wolf entered the room, after being sure no one is following them or there was no more Blue suns reinforcements coming from the corridor and used his auto senses to cover all the room, soon the spirit machine of his armor told them all the tactical info he need and just jumped over the destroyed window into the cell down there.

“Wait the fuck up, wolfy!” shouted Shepard following the astartes in a explosion of biotic power, as vanguard she had more than dominated the biotic charge power allowing her to move quickly and brutally on the battlefield “ wait for the rest of the team, dammit”.

Garrus and Miranda soon join them down the cabin and took their weapons out at the sight of the cataclysm that seems to have happened to both YIMIR and the room on where the cryocell of Jack was.

“That girl knows her stuff that’s for sure” commented Garrus “two damn YIMIRs took down with her bare hands, quite impressive”.

“Well, she was in the dossiers, TIM wanted the best after all” shrugged Shepard who look at the hole the girl has made on the wall, opening a path into the yard of the prisoners.

She took point followed by Garrus and Miranda, leaving Iron wolf as rear guard, either way his eight feet and half frame was tall enough for him to shoot over their heads if the need arise.

They followed the path of destruction Jack has cleaved through the walls, and Shepard has to admit it was fucking impressive, specially considering that she has done almost all of it with her bare hands and her biotic powers. Shepard and Miranda had some confronted thoughts about this, they were considered powerful biotics but this crazy girl was way out of their leagues, neither of them could have pull that stunt of trashing a YIMIR just with a biotic charge, just for that Shepard wanted her on the team, even if she; as Shepard suspected; was going to be a complete pain in the ass to deal with.

The emergency lights were a welcome change from the red flashes that appeared all over the station, and the dark and cold corridors were separated from the exposed corridors on where the blue suns was chasing them, so they could move quickly without being intercepted, something that Iron wolf commented it was a pity, he could use some sport, no matter how pitiful these soldiers were. The furious voice of Kuril sound over the speakers of the yard at the other side of the corridor, commanding their soldiers to move already and contain the riot, and by no means kill Jack, she was too valuable to kill.

“Shepard, the warden has cut the energy to half of the blocks of the station, 0 survivors detected” informed _EDI_ “ the Servitors 1 and 2 have already repeled the Blue suns assaults to the ship, there are no casualties, Crewman Rolston and Crewman Hardison had minor shot wounds from the assault”.

“Good” replied Shepard with a sigh.

Those servitors of Iron wolf, whatever they are, sure come handy; her crew was not a combat crew and just the security on board along Jacob, Zaeed and Mordin could not have been enough to repel a full front attack from an assault squad of blue suns, specially if they are so openly throwing mech at them.

“Patching through” said EDI before the rasp voice of Zaeed entered their coms.

“Dock bay clear Shepard” said the merc “ this two monsters are another miracle of yours, Iron wolf?”.

“Yes” replied Iron wolf “ Servitor 1 and 2, they are still a work in progress, as they only have the basic combat routines but they will suffice”.

“Suffice?, are you fucking kidding me?, those two metal hulks has cleared all the place better than a krogan krant” laughed the merc “ say, would you not lend me this two beautiful bastards for a little job would ya?” sound the fist of Massani punching something metallic.

“Exclusive contract with me Zaeed” snarled Shepard “ and put behind on the queue for Iron wolf miracles, I still want one of this bolters of him, you have to see what they could do...they chew their way to a turian shield, armor and flesh and then kill the fucker that was _behind_ of the first victim”.

“Fuck” simply stated Zaeed and cut the transmissions as Shepard order and alt.

They have reach the open yard of the block and the picture was a complete mess.

As soon as the prisoners out of their cryos noticed the damages and the losening of the containment fields, they attacked the guards and overwhelm them to rob their weapons and try to bust themselves away to the deck bay. All the open yard was divided in two, one high place from where Shepard and her team has exited following Jack and the rest of the yard under them, there was a pair of bridges with modular covers going up and down and some broken field generators sparking randomly when the rioters shoot them down.

All the place was illuminated by a dark orange light as the alarm of the prison was cut off by Kuril; in all honesty the sound was annoying for everyone; as he took the speakers and start issuing orders to the mercs acting as guards.

Still, the Blue suns were professionals and soon they start to fight back, killing all the rioters with the help of a YIMIR mech that sweep the place clean easily with his heavy machine gun.

Iron wolf counted a dozen Blue sun hostiles, another high number of prisoners and one single heavy mech, the odds were good, this could become interesting actually.

“Miranda overload the shields of the Yimir, Garrus you and Iron wolf shoot him” ordered Shepard with a predatory smile “ lets see if we can force him to go kaboom in the middle of the Blue suns lines”.

“I have to get closer for that Shepard” said Miranda “ he is to far for my overload to reach it”.

“I go with her” said Iron wolf “ I will attract the fire, you and Vakarian surround them by the left and I will act as diversion for her, until she hits the mech with her biotics”.

Shepard pondered that tactic a little, she didn’t want to use Iron wolf as a fucking bait, she never had used those tactics before, unless she was the bait but he had a point and it was the only one among them who could withstand the punishment, in case shit hit the fan and the overload fail.

“To risky Iron wolf” replied Shepard “ I am not going to use you as walking cover, just for a cheap shot to that thing”.

“Iron wolf with me” pointed Shepard to the modular covers that were deploying randomly under the bridge “ we carve a path, Garrus and Miranda cover fire and biotics, as soon as you had the mech at range tell us and fry it”.

Iron wolf say nothing and play along the plan of Shepard, ignoring the tactic advise of his autosenses, it was similar to the one Shepard ordered but with some critical differences and once again the woman has proven herself trustworthy, as she didn’t want to use him as bait. She deserves loyalty, so much was true and once again Iron wolf had to remind himself that this was not his universe, not his rules. And there was the last gift from his Primarch, apart from the wolf pelt on the armory of the _Fenris;_ words and emotions that his King shared with him, and if he considered this universe worthy...

Shepard started a run to the nearest cover quickly followed by Tor and Miranda, meanwhile Garrus extend his custom Mantis and locked the head of a blue sun, piercing his shield and helmet with perfect accuracy.

Shepard run from cover to cover, shooting to the blue suns and the occasional rioter who was stupid enough to think she was a better objective, Iron wolf on the other hand just walk at her side, putting down merc after merc with single shoots of his bolter, the power of the bullets was more than enough to overpower their shields and armor; only a heavy sentinel did manage to withstand being eviscerated by the weapon and just get his chest caved gruesomely.

Miranda was following Shepard like a professional, supporting her assault rifle and biotics with her own great shooting skills, she slid under a cover and finally get at range of overloading the damn mech. She focused her biotics and did so, disrupting the shield of the war machine enough to Garrus put a bullet through his lenses and Iron wolf torn to shreds its chest plate with a barrel of his bolter.

Unfortunately the mech did manage to launch one last rocket before exploding by the massive damage deal to it, Miranda was covering so she didn’t saw how the fucking missile smashed her cover and blow it to pieces, sending her tumbling backwards with her biotics shield collapsed.

She collided with the wall behind her, and immediately noticed how her bones rattled for the sudden impact against the wall, her suit was very comfortable and all that; but by no means it was armor, and can't do shit to prevent this kind of damages. If it wasn’t for her own perfect body, she will be a smear of the wall, slowly recovering and still wobbled by the shockwave and the hit against the wall, Miranda didn’t notice the hulking form of a human prisoner jumping at her, tackling her to the ground in a very brutal way, that didn’t help to her already shaken bones.

“Brick likes tight ass” the retarded and humongous man was already drooling all over Miranda.

She manages to punch her in the face but without any biotic enhancements and in the weakened state she was, she couldn’t do all the damage she wanted and soon find herself struggling under the mass of muscle and dumbness.

“ _Left_ ” sounded a voice in her head and Miranda extended her hand, just to grab the handle of a very conveniently placed sword, with a vindictive smile, Miranda shoved the blade under the jaw of Brick, piercing his head and tiny brain in one single thrust. Pushing the body at her side, Miranda took out the sword and noticed how similar it was to the one Iron wolf carries around as knife.

Shepard appeared at her side, crouching near her as she shot some cover fire to the already retreating Blue suns.

“Ey XO, you ok?” ask Shepard with a glance to the blood pool on the face of the big fucker in the floor.

“Peachy” snorted her focusing her mind into the mission, definitely she was going to follow the advice of the Iron wolf and start carrying armor and a blade around, now that she thought about it, it was kind of surprise how this didn’t happen to her before.

“Lets go Miranda” said Shepard offering a hand to the wounded woman.

She accepted the gesture and raising from the floor, grab the handle of the sword strongly, no doubt that blade had saved her life, perhaps she could ask Iron wolf to let her keep it, somehow she didn’t doubt it will be a mastercraft piece of art that will reach huge amounts in any sale out there.

Both joined Iron wolf and Garrus who were shooting to the retreating Blue suns and waiting for them to join them for the next yard, the trail of destruction Jack was leaving in all the station was quite easy to follow.

With a nod, Iron wolf took point this time, entering the broken corridor with his bolter already in his hands, so far, he was the only one who was faring quite well with all this mess.

He was having fun butchering the Blue suns and so far only his armor seems affected, by dozens of little craters and marks that signals the absurd quantity of incoming fire has he soaked, to cover them and acting as bait. Now Shepard realized something that scare the shit outta her, Iron wolf was Not using any kind of mass effect shield, he was not using any combat shield, so all the fire that he has soaked has been done by all his armor. Now that spoke volumes of the quality of his gray and golden armor.

Another mystery for the collection that makes this bastard called Iron wolf.

They pick up the pace as they hear the increasing sound of battle surrounding them, it seems that finally the rioters had put their hands in some quality gear and it was their turn to give hell to the guards of the Blue suns. Anyhow, they had another mission to complete and Jack was getting too much advantage over them, fortunately they was only two or three ships in the deck bay, one of them, the good old _Normandy._

She could not leave the station unless she came with them or try to board one the space pods and the two other supply vessels in the station; in any case they could easily follow and call the girl in, but all of that will be unnecessary if they managed to catch her and convince her to join before she got out of the station.

They run for a couple of minutes in the darkness, the constant echos of the station being torn apart was only interrupted by a message from _EDI_ telling them that the Blue suns had stop the assault on the Normandy after suffering a high number of casualties and two squads of LOKI devastated to scraps. In another order of things, now five of the blocks are under rioters control and they were already trying to enter into the deck bay, but for the moment it was a stalemate between the Blue suns and the rioters in that aspect.

Miranda took a second to apply some medigel to her wounds, unfortunately it could do nothing to bruised and cracked ribs, unless you are resting and they had no time for that, Garrus sported some new marks on his armor and Shepard had lost somewhere, part of her shoulder pad.

They exit to almost and identical yard in the insides of the station, however they could saw Jack sent a bunch of Blue suns flying, and shoot another one with a shotgun before it runs of ammo and instead of changing the thermal, she used it to cub the bastard to death.

Iron wolf didn’t pay attention to the girl, all his attention was focused in the strange tower in the corner of the room, it was emitting some very odd signatures and the mass effect field that surrounded it was unstable.

It didn’t take him too long to categorize the place as a danger, as it has complete vision of the yard and it was safe from counter attacks from any position on the yard.

His suspicions do became correct when Kuril appeared on top, furiously tipping on his omnitool and activating a pair of glowing towers that surround him with a powerful mass effect field. That would make him almost invulnerable to the weapons the ground team had, except for one.

Iron wolf observed how two complete squads of Blue suns appeared from the right and furthest corner of the yard, a pair of them went running after Jack into the corridor the woman has taken and would lead her to the vessel dock bays. With luck, she will take the route to the _Normandy_.

Kuril spoted the giant frame of the Iron wolf and turn to them smiling.

“Shepard, you have cost me a fortune already” snarled the turian with hate “ but no matter, once I get you and Jack again, I will gain quite the sum from you both”.

Kuril raised his revenant; the best assault rifle there is on the market nowadays; and shoot them a rain of bullets.

Iron wolf pick his sword from his back and raised the sword to block the rain of bullets, the rest of the team has already scattered for cover along the metal scrap that was all around the place, returning the fire and engaging with the Blue sun forces. However, the _Redstorm_ glow bright for a second and a sudden shock wave repelled the rain of bullets that was the signature of the revenant.

Shepard and the rest had already surrendered about all the miracles this super soldier could get out of his hat, so they simply keep fighting until all the enemies are taken care of and them they will ask the astartes what the hell was that?, that was no biotic, so much they were sure, there was no mass effect involved in that barrier.

“Shepard, I will open a path for you” said Iron wolf through the comm “when the field is over, do that blue meteor like trick of yours to move in the face of Kuril and finish him, Garrus, you and Miranda give me cover”.

All the team froze for a second...

Ok, who are you and where is the stubborn bastard of the Iron wolf all of them know and love?.

“Err...you ok wolfie?” replied Shepard and she almost fainted on the spot when she barely caught the bolter Iron wolf has tossed her.

“Wha...?” blurted the woman.

“The second trigger is the one, careful, it kicks like a krogan on esteroids” laughed Iron wolf and start walking ahead surrounded by a swirl of lighting and wind that block any bullet on his way.

“Garrus, Miranda left and right” said Iron wolf pointing the to the towers that were feeding the shield.

The blue suns keep shooting the astartes but the most they were doing was denting the surface of his sturdy armor, as most of his fire was completely suppressed by the storm that surrounded him. As they had been ordered, Garrus and Miranda destroyed the towers, one by shooting it down and the other, smashing it with her biotics into a piece of scrap.

Kuril was loosing his patience, as they were pouring a shit ton of fire power into the fucking mech of Shepard and it was moving like it was nothing, they had only dented his armor and destroyed part of the emblem on his chest, scratching some the runes on the surface. So focused he was on shooting the astartes that he almost missed how the shield was gone and how a sudden meteorite of blue power was launched from a cover under him, smashing against his chest; caving it completely.

His personal shield was shatter in a nanosecond by the powerful charge of Shepard but his armor was already injecting him a dozen of drugs and medigel to correct the trauma, tumbling to the edge of the balcony he tried to raise his own weapon to respond but then, the world went white.

Shepard saw her chance at the moment the shield of the tower collapsed, the shield was the only thing that prevented her and Miranda to simply send Kuril flying with a biotic throw.

But when they took down the towers, she smiled like a predator and channel all her powers as vanguard into the most powerful charge she could muster; it was like seeing a blue comet slamming against the warden Kuril. As she has been told, she pulled the second trigger and she had to grit her teeth and force all her strong arms into keep the massive beam of scorching heat in the directions she wanted.

All Kuril; except a pair of armored feet and ankles, who were smoking from the heat; a meter of railing and a dozen meters deep and two meters wide hole in the wall in front of her, was all that remains; after she fired the meltagun of the bolter.

To say she immediately fell in love with the gun would be an understatement.

When the beam vaporized their boss, all the Blue suns lost all courage they had and start running in the opposite direction of whatever the hell has created that pocket apocalypse, there was no money that could pay anyone to charge against a portable gardian laser cannon.

They were completely wrong but they had never witnessed what the melta weapons could do in the battlefield, there was a reason why they were so appreciated by all the Imperial forces in the galaxy, it could take down with the same easiness a tank than a heavy enemy trooper, like one of those traitors of the Chaos legions.

Garrus and Miranda quickly dispatch the running mercs and Shepard jumped from the tower to the floor smiling and flustered, hugging the still smoking barrel of the meltagun like she was a teenager hugging her favorite plushy.

“This...this is fucking awesome!” shouted the woman, still trying to adjust to the weight of the weapon, as it was way heavier than anything she had use except missile launcher and the sorts “ can I keep it?, I will take care of it, I promise!” batted her eyelash to Iron wolf and try to give him the cutest expression she could muster.

Iron wolf was openly laughing his ass off, and Garrus wanted to do the same but never will she do it in front of Shepard, she will toss him against the wall, Miranda was raising an eyebrow with that smartass smile of her.

“I’m sorry Shepard” shook his head Iron wolf “ but there is a very rigorous procedure to do, in order to replenish the meltagun charge in the weapon, and I’m afraid you don’t know how to do it”.

Shepard wanted to protest but she recognized Iron wolf was right, she didn’t have an idea from where to start with this baby, from the solid slug chamber to the one shot melta whatever, it carries; all the tech behind the weapon was complete mystery.

“Ooouh” whined her, delivering the bolter back to Iron wolf who pick it with easiness and maglocked it to his back, under the power pack that keep his armor powered and ready for battle.

“We should move to intercept Jack before she left” commented Miranda clearly amused by this sudden revelation of the character of her commander, the dossiers about her were good, but seeing it in person was even better.

The almighty commander Shepard has a cute side too, who would have said it?.

They moved along the last corridor and they didn’t have to run too much as they already saw where was the woman running, they will catch her in the last crossroad, as all the corridor joined in one before the tunnel that guide to the dry deck. Shepard cursed when she saw a barricade in the middle of the corridor, just at the entrance of the dry dock, the Blue suns on the place where recovering from the beating Jack has already given them but they were more than enough to slow them down.

“Go Shepard” said Iron wolf taking point and gripping his bolter from his back “ I take care of this, go fetch your biotic”.

Shepard nodded and just slammed through the barricade like a blue battering ram, sending pieces of twisted metal and plastic everywhere before taking her own and very unsatisfying Mattlocck; now that she has been given a taste of heaven in the form of bolter, she will never saw the same all the mass effect weaponry of the universe the same way; and start shooting a complete thermal clip into the few mercs that weren’t clever enough to run for cover when she busted through the barricade like it was nothing.

Miranda and Garrus just keep moving and cover the sides of Shepard, running past the barricade and entering into the corridor along her.

Iron wolf smiled when he saw the scene, more and more was Shepard winning his approval, pity she was called Lioness, she was worthy of being called ally and had a taste for brutal tactics that could rival with the one of the Vlka Fenryka. He focused his mind on the task ahead and walking into the hole Shepard has made into the barricade, he let his power loose. A dozen of lightnings cover his frame, illuminating the place with a blue and white light that nauseated the minds of the survivors before a penetrating smell of ozone fill the corridor and all the crystal where covered by a thick layer of frost.

Some raised their guns, some just jump again behind cover and other just try to run; the most weak willed of them just puke their guts out into the floor of the corridor.

In the end, it didn’t matter, all of them died equally when the psy power of Iron wolf electrocuted them alive, burning their bodies and shields until there was only left some smears in the frozen crystal, the floor and the ceiling of the corridor.

Tasting blood under his helmet, Iron wolf smiled like a mad man, it was so good to let the storm in his heart to roam free for a few seconds; he could sense the dozen of protective runes almost overheating by the titanic effort of contain the psy storm in a confined place like it was the corridor but once again the sacred spirit machine of his armor has keep him safe.

Maglocking his bolter on his back again, Iron wolf start a light jog to join the rest of the team.

There was so much to do so they can fight alongside him in the battles to come.

Shepard on the other hand was butting heads, literally, with the stubborn tattooed girl called Jack.

She was powerful and she will be a fucking ace for the team when they hit the collectors, but her attitude was annoying her to no end, and she will not tolerate any foolishness inside of her baby.

Garrus was utterly amused by all this and secretly playing on his mind the same scene but with Shepard dressing something akin to the leather strips and pants Jack was wearing, he has to have a very serious talk with himself later for such thoughts, but for the moment he will just enjoy the show.

Miranda has it worse, as she was in the verge of shooting the little girl down and screw the mission, she will be categorized and collateral damage and that will be all, after all, they had Iron wolf now, and if what she had saw before was, what she thought it was, now she was more convinced than ever to win his loyalty or at last his trust.

She shuddered just to imagine herself in the dangerous side of that bolter or at the receiving end of the damn sparking sword capable of stopping bullets in mid air like it was nothing, something that only powerful biotic barriers could do and only by experts like Krogan battle masters or Asari matriarchs.

“Fuck off girl-scout, Cerberus fucked my life, I will not fall into another of their traps” almost spitted the bald tattooed girl in the face of Shepard with her hand already glowing in biotic power.

“You fuck off, blue bulb, either you come with me or I will drag you off this fucking place” replied Shepard with her own blue fist already ready for the imminent collision.

“Blue bulb?” snickered Garrus and Miranda rolled her eyes “ that’s priceless!”.

“Cub?” thundered the voice of Iron wolf towering over Miranda and Garrus that almost had a heart attack, how the fuck was something so big and armored so fucking stealthy ?. “ Why are you butting heads with the commander?”.

“UH!?” was the clever response of all of them until Jack recognize the towering gray and golden, yet a little tarnished, form of Iron wolf.

“Fuck!” screamed her “ Iron wolf?; what are you doing here?”.

“I am part of Shepards _Aett,_ cub” laughed Iron wolf surprising the rest of the ground team for the familiarity they had.

“What's the fuck is an Aett?” asked Jack and suddenly Miranda, Garrus and Shepard face palmed themselves, why the fuck didn’t they ask that in the first place!?.

“A clan, a battle company, a family” shrugged Iron wolf “ that´re just words cub, an _Aett_ Is, and that is more than enough”.

Ah, there it is why they didn’t ask before, any question to the Iron wolf only creates a response, and a dozen new questions, all of them even more troublesome than the next.

“That’s not a response big fella” snarled Jack “ I hate when you do that to me, and I’m Jack for fuck sakes, not cub!” not she was walking to Iron wolf, ready to punch him trough a wall.

“Not that I am not in favor of punching him” chuckled Shepard “ but we are on a tight schedule” pointed to the crystal on where they could see how all the station was being teared apart by the failure in the systems.

Soon all the place will be blow to pieces, with luck some near ship will come to deal with the aftermath but the _Normandy_ will long be gone when that time arrives, already on route to the next objective.

The krogan called Okeer.

“I’m not going anywhere with you girl scout!” shouted Jack.

“Cool” shrugged Shepard who was already feed up with the girls shit “this station is going to be blow into pieces any minute now, good luck”.

Jack was speechless for this sudden turn of attitude.

“Move team, we have a schedule to clear” said to the rest of the ground team who follow suit and walked after her into the corridor that lead to the _Normandy._

Even from that distance, they could already see a lot of corpses, it seems that the efforts of the blue suns to take the ship were more than the common assault, instead they have deployed and entire platoon of mercs, along who knows how many LOKIs but at the end of the day it seems a wasted effort.

Shepard took good note of reinforce the ground defenses of the Normandy, the common security crow was not enough if they will have to face the attack of a fucking horde, fortunately the new additions to security called Servitor 1 and 2 were more than enough to send the mercs running with the tail between their legs.

“ _Five, four, three, two, one.._.” counted Shepard mentally, smiling to herself.

“Ey, do you have access to Cerberus Databases in that shiny can?” pointed suddenly Jack to the _Normandy_ down them.

“Yes, the _Normandy_ have them” emphasized Shepard the name of her baby “Why?, are you going to come with us?”.

“Give me access to the Cerberus database so I can find who fuck my life and I will join you in your little crusade” said Jack fidgeting back and forth to the ship and Shepard, if it weren’t for the tattoos and the bad attitude, she will just be a very lost girl, in a very hostile universe.

“Deal” said Shepard without even turn to the girl “now move your inked ass into the ship, this place is tearing apart”.

Miranda did try to complaint about what Shepard has so freely done but the hand of the Iron wolf on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks.

“Let her be” cracked the voice of the Iron wolf in her comm and only for her to listen “ she need closure and the files on the _Normandy_ could appease her enough to be of use for the Aett, _EDIs_ loyalty codes will prevent her to dig into dangerous files”.

Miranda pondered the words of the Iron wolf and recognize the wisdom behind them, not only warrior but a good manipulator too, this astartes was a godsend for the mission and at the same time Miranda started to fear him.

What would happen the day he decided to turn sides and join Aria in Omega or any other organization out there, between his tech and whatever they hell they were those biotics of him, he is the worst threat to humankind she has never seen.

At the same time, he was completely devoted to the humankind and it was perhaps one of the few reasons that hold back Miranda suspicions about what were the true intentions of the astartes; for what the had collected about him, he has just been wandering the galaxy for two years, just the day of the battle for Citadel.

The ground team walked into the corridor of the port bay and all of them blinked mouth agape when they saw the gray and armored forms of the servitors.

Both barely some inches smaller than Iron wolf but equally armored and with a pair of auto cannons on each of their arms, they were bipedal and their head was a single square helmet of some kind, with a pair of vertical red lenses that scanned the hangar with the patience of the machines; looking for a threat to eliminate. As Iron wolf entered in their range, both lowered their weapons and start walking back to the _Normandy,_ with a very slow and heavy pace that echoed on the metallic floor of the place.

Zaeed was the first one to reach the ground team, smoking one of his cigarettes with a wide smile in his ugly and scarred face, sporting his _Jessy_ over his shoulders.

“So you get her, uh Shepard?” said the Merc “ lets get the outta here before more reinforcements tried to on board the ship by force and now that those two beautiful monsters are not patrolling, we should move quick”.

Shepard noticed the deep holes in the floor, the littering corpses all over one corner of the room and how all the crew seems to be both relieved and scared the hell outta them.

“What the fuck has happened here scar head?” shouted Shepard.

“Ey hon, blame you gray puppy for this” shrugged Zaeed still smiling “ we had in hard at the begging, but then those two appeared, and start doing their job, and they are fucking good on their job”.

“Any chance for you to explain what are those mechs?” sighed Shepard.

“Tonight, as usual” shrugged Iron wolf who simply walk past Shepard who just sighed again, he was the worst headache she has ever had.

  


  


Normandy SR-2/ Armory/ 1600PM

  


Jacob has seen his workload just increase by a dozen fold as soon as the mission to Purgatory ended, he didn’t know what the hell happened but despite being a complete success, all the team seems to be in low spirits, the state of their armors was not precisely the best of the best and even Miranda has talk to him to custom an armor and a knife for that.

He almost dropped the glass he had at that point.

As her, well, somehow friend of sorts, and fellow operative of Cerberus, Miranda told him what was left off the official records of the mission, and the dossier she was compelling to TIM.

There was a lot of B.S in that dossier, things that seems made for sci-fi instead of reality.

But it was real, and soon they learn to deal with it, the sooner, the better it would be for all of them.

Jacob picked up the tools and commence to repair the hard suit in front of him, it was the common hardsuit that you could find in all the military forces of the galaxy but adding some extra armor in legs, shoulders and chest to protect vital areas. Being a biotic as Miranda was, Jacob tended to trust in his own reinforces suit in case of battle, but he understood the necessity of heavy armor for the soldiers or the vanguards, who tend to get in the toughest of any combat to dish and receive a ton of damage.

He was hoping to get the videos of the mission, after all he has seen how the Iron wolf has managed to tear apart a Yagh barehanded and that was kind a miracle, so he wanted to saw those weapons of his in action to see if they are as good as he claims.

Suddenly he felt a tool slip out of the box and disappear, smiling to himself he just keep working and when he ended to fuse the broken layers of the chest protections of the suit moved to the secret fridge he had under the heavy weaponry desk, his little secret stash, who has been raided by Kasumi more times that he would like to count.

Opening the fridge, Jacob took a can of green tea and put it near the tool box, at the same time he open a can for himself, he has been working non stop since the lunch and it was time for a little drink; non alcoholic of course, that will have to wait until he is out of service.

He kept working on the armor for Miranda, she wanted something similar to his, a strong hard suit that could protect her but at the same time, do not restraint her and her movement, as him she was more accustom to be always on the move than to be static and dish a lot of damage.

Jacob had his doubts about what has happened that has cause that change of heart in Miranda, as she had never worn any armor, trusting her own biotics and personal field to keep any damage to get her. Being the powerful adept she was, it was something understandable, the biotics tends to be always on the move, their blue glowing made them perfect targets and by so they had to had very good shields and never offer a clear target to any enemy shooter.

He didn’t pay attention to the disappearance of the green tea can, he has already accustomed to the antics of Kasumi, more probably, she will be trying again to slip into the _Fenris_. Since the strange and gigantic shuttle was inside the ship, she has made her personal mission to get inside the ship with no real success for the moment. She has told how Shepard and Iron wolf had been a meanies and tease her, Shepard just fucking called to the door, that’s not how things are done, you must slip, pick up something and get out before they caught you.

Jacob just chuckled and told her that in fact, the correct way to do things was to ask permission first but that will be so boring for her so, cheer up and keep digging into the code of the ship, with luck any years of this, she will be able to crack the code of the shuttle. She puffed at that remark and challenge him, telling that she will get it done before they hit the Collector base.

Jacob was not the common grunt of the Alliance, he had been neck deep in the black shit operations that the Alliance and the Council were always pulling on each other, and know full well the dimensions of what they were trying to do. Hitting the home world of the collectors was a suicide mission, but someone has to done it, there was no other option if they wanted to prevent the deaths of millions of human colonies in the terminus systems.

The Alliance couldn’t do shit, the Council couldn’t do shit and so the list goes on, so, the responsibility of all this mess has fell into Cerberus hands and in all honesty; Jacob was not as loyal as he seems.

First of all, all the bullshit Cerberus has done over the years is something that can not be erased with a good deed, at the beginning Cerberus was a good thing, an organization that protected humanity from the rest of the alien races, but now, it was more akin to a terrorist organization who didn’t care a shit for anything but their own objectives; and some of them were utterly disgusting.

What they have done to Shepard?, that was the tip of the Iceberg, a shit ton of tech, experimental tech; was used to recreate Shepard as perfect as she was when she died on the Collector attack, over her old _Normandy._

Recovering the body has been a complete pain in the ass, having to deal with traitorous double agents of the Shadow broker and the said Collectors trying to get their hand on the corpse of Shepard. There was not much to begin with but hell if he allowed the Collector to put their greedy insect claws on the body of the greatest heroine of humanity. Jacob respected Shepard, no matter how insane or childish she could be from time to time, she was a very competent and capable commander and a fighter who could make anyone follows her just by the strength of her charisma.

After all, she was the only one who has managed to put together a crew of Cerberus and a pair of aliens in the same ship without provoking a riot in any of the two sides; not that Garrus or Mordin will complain, they were; on their own ways; a pair of thought son of a bitches who could equal any N7 operative any time of the day. Speaking about the aliens, Garrus seems to have sheltered himself permanently on the gun batteries and Mordin sleeps in the lab, if he even sleeps, after the Iron wolf owned him with science, the salarian had locked himself in the laboratory.

He was still trying to develop a vaccine for the swarms of the Collectors, those bug like things stings and put all their victims into stasis, ready for being harvested by the Collectors into his space junk for Gods knows what purpose.

He focused on his job in front of him and keep doing the maintenance of all the weapons and armors of the team, letting the time go and humming to himself as he was completing the task ahead of him. He loved to thinker in the weapons and armors, he was a soldier at his heart and the weapons are the tools of her profession, respect them and it will respect you, after all, your life depends on them, nothing could fuck your day better than a defective shield in the middle of a fire fight.

And talking about fire fight, he didn’t want to do it but he had to try that thing made with collector tech, of course that was the simulator was for, he could try the specks of the rifle without actually having to carry that thing around.

No matter what the eggheads of Cerberus said, that thing look alive and hungry, kudos for the cretin who made the carcass of the rifle to imitate so well the fleshy appearance of the weapon, he knows his stuff but it could have done it with any other; more human friendly; rifle.

Speaking about that, the Mattlock has been quite the discovery, _EDI_ deserves a reward for suggesting the creation of that piece of art, could be a little crude compared with the solid avenger or the compact vindicator, but his effective in the hands of a trained soldier was beyond doubt.

However, Shepard has been mumbling something about bolters when she delivered the weaponry back to the ship armory; it seems that Iron wolf had trusted her with the weapon during the mission and she had feel immediately in love with the weapon. Jacob still had to see that thing in combat, it looks like something, that only a krogan could carry and shoot around, but not precisely conceived to long term wars but to short term missions on where a ton of damage has to be made on the target.

Finishing his task, Jacob smiled and put the weapons and gear back in each one cabins, so they could pick it before a mission, they still have a pair of days ahead before hitting the relay and a week more or less of travel before they hit Krolus, to recruit warlord Okeer.

Jacob was happy to have a krogan on his side before hitting the Collector Homeworld but at the same time he knows, he will have to live with a krogan during all that time, and boy that is a sure recipe for a killing headache. Well, at last him and the Iron wolf could exchange histories of war, and speaking about histories of war, will the astartes appear today too during the dinner?.

Jacob was as fascinated as the rest with the tales of the dimension he is from, that place is a complete nightmare, a galaxy of war and constant mayhem and yet the humanity still remain unbroken.

There is a lesson in that, and Cerberus should take good note before doing anything stupid that fucks the humanity position among the stars, after Shepard saved the day during the battle for the Citadel.

Jacob tossed a glance to his omnitool as it flashed the hour, 2000 earth time, he still had a little time, so perhaps he could do some exercise in the gym, at this hour there will be little people, perhaps some the night crew and security doing some exercises but most probably it will be empty.

With a smile, he saw how the tool reappeared back into the tool box, it was a little game he was playing with Kasumi, if the woman was able to slip a tool without him noticing, he will treat her to a green tea. So far, he had never caught the stealthy woman, not really a surprise considering she was one of the best thieves of the galaxy but it was kind of fun to play with her and her antics about thievery.

Jacob has seen a lot of shit, so her kleptomania was not very high in his list of shit never to be allowed. In fact her attitude and playfulness is more than welcome aboard; most of the crew, are people, with almost no sense of humor and lesser time for it. Kasumi is a welcome and cheery chaos that lessen the tension in the ship.

She and Shepard had become good friends very easily, as Shepard is totally tolerant with the escapades of the girl and found them very amusing, not to mention, she was one of the few that had managed to actually talk to the Iron wolf.

Jacob suspected that Kasumi reminds Iron wolf that this universe is not as grim and dark as his was; Kasumi may have a dark past, but in comparison to some the shit the crew had suffered at the hands of a large list of aliens, it was nothing.

And of course, nothing compared with ten thousand years of unimaginable warfare.

Jacob was eager to learn more about the universe of the Iron Wolf, if not, it was a very fascinating a disturbing tale, a distopia of war and hate that had no hope except the light of the emperor to survive to the hordes of enemies that plague the galaxy.

Cleaning his workplace, he moved to the elevator, casually finding the doctor mumbling with himself over his omnitool who was displaying a dozen of graphics at high speed, no doubt the salarians loved programing at the same level that the quarian, it was of the few sciences that actually can keep their high rhythm of speech and thought.

Live fast, think fast. It was a very common cliche of the salarians, not that Mordin did not represent both of them but in general it has proven to be a very solid asset in the battlefield, not even as a medic but as a very well trained ex-STG agent.

“Ey doc” saluted Jacob to the mumbling salarian.

“Ah, Taylor” blinked Mordin raising his head from the screens “ good evening, moving to the dinner hall?, no, no, too soon for that, light exercise, medical dossier indicates a very disciplined training regime, but at these hours...”.

“Breath doc” smiled Jacob “ just to the gym to do some exercises to get rid of the stiffness of the armory workload and to open appetite before dinner”.

“Ah, logic, agreed with the said disciplined training regime, correct” mumbled the salarian to himself.

“What gets you so interested doc?” pointed Jacob to the screens surrounding the omnitool.

“Ah!” blinked the doctor again “ a theory about what does sustain the ships of Iron wolf universe and how their hulls could withstand such a long time of service and punishment, without being dismantled and recycled almost after each battle”.

Jacob shook his head and let the scientist be, he was an expert in bioengineering and all kind related to xeno-biologic but at the same time he was a sucker for all thing science related and by so, when Iron wolf kick out of the window all the science laws so far just with his existence, he offered an intellectual challenge for the salarian that he couldn’t resist.

However, perhaps the salarian could be a little more moderate in his activities to deciphers Iron wolf tech, for what Miranda and he had deducted, Iron wolf consider most of his tech to be sacred and add to that his already confirmed xenophobic origin; having an annoying salarian bouncing around you, could make the situation went pear shaped very easily.

Jacob let the salarian in the elevator, as he was going to engineering to check some of his theories with the local experts; namely Ken and Gabby, the most curious Cerberus engineers you could find in all the organizations of this universe.

The best there is, that for sure but at the same time the most eccentric of them, speaking abut eccentric, they now had a new guest inside the bowels of the engineering deck. The biotic miracle called Jack was making her living quarters in the bottom of the deck and for what Jacob cares, good riddance.

The girl was a psycho the best day and a complete danger the other, too extreme for his tastes but her power was off the charts, she was all the dossier says about her and more, but at the same time it was a very traumatized girl who has suffered a lot.

Still, not his problem, it was Shepards problem and Mirandas problem to deal with the crazy biotic.

Jacob walked into the gym and prepare to enjoy some simple exercises, that why he became soldier, an enemy in front and clear orders to follow.

Unfortunately all this mess was all but simple.

  


Normandy SR-2/ The suite (Captains cabin)/ 20:19PM

  


Shepard snorted and the movement collapsed the tower of data slates right beside her head, felling it all over her, who flinched and mumbled in protest, cursing under her teeth from the brusque awakening of her well deserved nap. She had been buried under a thousand of bureaucratic crap, that she hated with a passion, everybody and her grandma seems to be asking something from her, not to mention all the pending of approving requisitions and all kind of bullshit that always seems to find a way to her terminal and desk, no matter how much she tried to get it clear.

From the diary reports of the day to day of the different sections of the ship, to the latest reports Cerberus had on their possible recruits and the reports about said recruits and how they are behaving themselves in the ship.

“This.Is.Bullshit!!”.

Raged Shepard sitting back on her chair, extracting her head from the pile of data slates, the work seems to be endless and it only piles and piles and piles...in an interminable spiral of bureaucracy and madness that will made her gone nuts and kill the next poor bastard who call at her door to bring in another batch of reports.

Oh, well, she has been over the terrain, kicking asses and taking names, why the fuck did the universe thought it was a good idea to put her in command?, the universe had a very odd sense of humor, that for sure.

But she was the best, she knows it and she knows it well, there was no one better than her to be sent to the most hellish hellhole you could think about and still manage to accomplish all the mission given to her.

Except Eden Prime and Virmaine, those were a total clusterfuck since the begging, those didn’t count.

She picked up some of the latest data slate, it was something about Jack making herself a lair in the bowels of the engineering deck, for what she cared, Shepard was more than happy to lost the little arrogant mother fucker.

She was better biotic than her, well, so much was already been proved when she smashed two YIMIRs with her bare hands and still cleave a path in the solid walls of the station with her biotic powers only.

The girl was a ticking bomb ready to explode at the drop of a hat, and now it was her responsibility to point her in the correct direction and do the cleaning after that; it was almost scary how similar she and the tattooed girl were in battlefield.

Both used their biotics to maximize the damage they inflict on the enemy but in Jacks case, it was way beyond her league, her registered potential, based on her appearances all over the space; was totally off the charts, she could even face in equal grounds an asari matriarch in terms of raw power. She still needs a ton of training for that, of course, blind rage and furious aggression will only lead you so far; Shepard learned that lesson too well, when she was nothing but a beginner at the N7 barracks, no matter how talented you are on the books, the battlefield don’t give a fuck about it.

Massaging her head, Shepard tossed the report over the already read bunch, noticing that her nap has provoked that both of them mixed, staring at them with a deadpanned expression, she started to dig holes in the dataslate just with her stare, really wishing that she could just burn them with her will.

Ey, Iron wolf could create lighting from thin air and he was not biotic, so it was not a so impossible dream anymore, now if she just manage to open that stubbornness of him and manage to convince to share his tech with the rest of the galaxy, now that will be a total score.

But...lets play with what she had for the moment.

Shepard revised the last supply data slates and nodded when she saw the requisitions for the mods they need for their weapons, armor-shredding, cryo and pyro, that were their favorites; bringing them in enough quantity to equip the security crew just in case, another situation like the one in Purgatory just present itself.

She knew that if it wasn’t for the sudden appearance of the Servitor 1 and 2, things could have become uphill for the defending crew, shooting the ship weapons was completely off the table and they were not equipped to deal with an incoming platoon of professional mercs like the Blue suns, but with a squad of assaulter or pirates trying to board the ship or with any riot on board. Fortunately, the Cerberus crew was very professional and for the moment, the worst they have to deal with was with a drunken pair of engineers stumbling across the worst side of the machine room.

Well, not counting the action in Purgatory of course, Zaeed has proved himself an asset when the fire came to the shore, holding the line and keeping the Blue suns at bay with his _Jessy_ and taking the command of the security crew until the Servitors appeared and kick the mercs asses to hell and forth.

Shepard took good note to install as many automatic defenses as she could, so they will never have to pass for a situation like this again, and that leaded her to another topic, the one controlling the weapons will be _EDI_ and despite the IA has already demonstrated she or it or whatever, is completely reliable, giving such control to the artificial intelligence was a little worrisome for her.

Enough has already been trusted to the IA but she has to admit having _EDI_ around had his benefits and now that she thought about it, could she not deal with half or more of the shit she had on the table right now?.

She could filter all the daily reports and pick up what really matters, not to mention, it was more than probable that the ship probably know that something knows that there is something wrong with her, faster than any technician could discover. Now that’s a reflection for another time, she will talk with the IA about that as soon as she ended the dossier of Okeer; she will not enter again into some kind of elaborated trap like the one Kuril almost pull on her.

If it wasn’t because Kuril was a fucking idiot, he could have trapped all the _Normandy_ and her easily, with a better thing that just walk her to a fucking cage and then just told her to sit like a good bitch and wait for someone to come and fuck her.

No thanks, it seems Kuril had taken advice from how the batarian slavers about how to deal with very dangerous vanguard slaves like her, and the bare-faced bastard had learned it well but a little too late as he was nothing but a smear on the space by now.

Who would be the mysterious buyer of her?, running a quick extranet scan of the matter, she has found very disturbing things but in general it could oscillate between crazy rich people who wanted to scan her brain after being affected by the protean beacon to the unique and inimitable Shadow broker.

That, and some interesting bets for the ones after her perfect ass, but nonetheless, she knew that it will be worst in the future, no one knew where the shadow broker shitheads could be hiding, not to mention all the bounties she had now from the Blue suns, the Eclipse and the Blood pack.

Specially the former bunch of Zaeed, she had fucked all their business with Purgatory in one fell swoop after the carnage she had done in Omega, that would make her smile, if it wasn’t because she almost lost Garrus.

Birdie almost kick the bucket in there and her stomach churn just at the thought, she felt her blood run cold when she saw the blood of Garrus all over the floor of the place, lucky for them, Mordin was there and could stabilize Garrus long enough to save her turian ass with a ton of cyber and medigel. She didn’t know what she will do if the turian disappeared, he and Tali where her most close friends, people with how she has gone to hell and back, with a laugh and a cold beer.

Garrus, Tali, Liara, Wrex, Kaidan and her, were the ones that defied all the universe and save the day from Saren and his Reaper puppet master the day of the battle of the Citadel...and Iron wolf but he just appeared on the last moment, cleaving an entire company of geth and melting the husk of Saren into the floor of the council chambers.

Shepard raised from her chair, already more than feed with the fucking reports and paperwork, she was a fucking military commander, she will not be chained to a desk to suck this shit forever, she need a drink and someone to share that drink.

She immediately thought of her favorite turian and flashed her omnitool to check the hour.

The numbers 21:47 flashed bright in her omnitool and she just sighed, she has been with all the paperwork; nap not included; for more than three freaking hours, she need a drink and some food.

She grimaced and striped on her way to the shower, tossing her clothes to the laundry box, she entered in the shower and lay over the wall of the shower, letting the warm water clean all her fatigue and worries from her mind for a minute; she deserved it.

Soon she walked to the mirror on the little shower room of the suite; as the crew called the captain quarters; and check out her image, snorting she massaged her head, feeling very, very tired by the moment, after all, the one that was looking at her at the mirror was none other than Commander Jane Lionel Shepard, the Lioness of Elysium, the savior of the council...and a dead person.

Honestly, the great beyond was not that great, she didn’t remember a shit of it after all, only the agonizing experience of death by exposure to the vacuum of the space and then, a cold sensation, after that is just a fucking black slate, not blank, black slate; before she awoke in the tender hands of Miranda and the Lazarus project.

She had better mornings that´s for sure, she could not tell anyone, but she was utterly terrified when she died and now feared that she was just a fucking clone of sorts, full of shit and Cerberus programming that will do their dirty work and they will just shut her down when the deed is done, taking the credit for all her efforts.

Shit has got complicated and having an extra dimensional supersoldier brooding in the hangar bay didn’t help at all, specially considering that say supersoldier was the exact answer for the prayers of all the weapons makers in the galaxy and for her, in her quest to stop the Reapers before they could harvest all civilizations like they did fifty thousand years ago.

Ah, the old times when she was just a Specter hunting a bastard through half the galaxy, with a license to kick ass everywhere and kick all the doors she wanted; not totally true but much better now that she was a fucking Specter in the Terminus systems...the only ones that were out of Citadel space and by so, without no real authority except to kill any bastards out there and enjoy doing it.

Shepard sighed; despite all her protests and complains she was loyal to the Alliance and the ideals of the Council, it seems that only She did care about the universe, well, she and her ragtag of misfits that were following her; some of them for a hefty sum money, of course.

She did some quick mental review of her own mental files about her team.

Jacob and Miranda along the rest of the Cerberus crew, except Chakwas and Joker, were Cerberus loyalist but not the same pieces of shit she had killed before, when she was hunting Saren, those were a real bunch of crazy psychos with too much time and even more money to expend into crazy experiments.

Jacob was a soldier to the core, a poor grunt who had to deal with a ton of shit, marked with kilometers of red tape.

Miranda at the beginning was the Ice queen of Cerberus but she is way too much clever for that and she obviously had her own agenda hidden among all that ice, one that had nothing to do with Cerberus, and once you past through all that Ice exterior there is a very interesting girl behind.

Garrus...what to say about her little favorite Turian, he always manages to make her smile, even in the worst of the situation, if it wasn’t for him, she will already shoot TIM in the face and in the crotch twice, just to be sure he suffered. Loyal, funny and the best sniper there is in the galaxy, he was quite the package.

Mordin, she fears Mordin, he was...odd to say the last, he was so focus in his world that sometimes he loses point of everything around him until he quelled his scientific curiosity, being said that, he was an STG veteran with an encyclopedic knowledge about bioengineering. Useful as hell.

Kasumi, good crazy and funny Kasumi, the playful ninja that roams the ship, stealing little things here and there just to return them later at her whim. She had received a shit ton of complains but how can you cure kleptomania in a fucking space ship?, anyhow, she was funny, she was lethal with that katana of hers and capable of slipping in even in the most protected places.

Jack...what say about that crazy psycho, she was queen bitch because the universe had made her queen bitch, that’s all it was, the most powerful human biotic and a crazy girl with more traumas that one would like to count into that bald and tattooed head of hers.

Jack must understand that Shepard was the alpha here, and her commands are to be obeyed, she had the responsibility over all the mission and the good going of the crew and the ship; Miranda is there to be sure that Shepard did indeed, try to stop the collectors and do not try to smuggle the ship and became another shit, staining the already pirate cramped Terminus systems.

Iron wolf, she didn’t know what to think about the bastard, for one side he was to perfect for this mission and this universe on the other hand, he was a potential terror that could cause a massive revolution in all the universe. Just imagine what will happen if he creates his own military force, competing with the Blue suns etc...in a few years he will conquest all the fucking Terminus and then he will turn his gaze to the rest of the universe.

Just imagine ships like the _Pompeya_ , taking down entire fleets of all other races…

“ _P_ _lease, to however is out there, please make Iron wolf one of the good guys, we are totally screwed otherwise”_ prayed Shepard mentally with all her might.

Anycase and back to the topic of the team, she was happy of having such a good team around her, and there was only more to come, hopefully as competent as she could hope, she need the best and no doubt TIM has selected quite the bunch for her to collect, at the same time she prepared to cause as much havoc as she could in the Collectors home world.

She stretched her naked figure and purred when her joints and muscles popped into position, she was quite proud of her body or was proud, this was supposedly the same but with enough tech on it to barely qualify her as human anymore. Cerberus has done the hell of a job to recompose her, bringing her back from the dead when those collectors fuckers blow the shit outta her and destroy her baby the _Normandy SR-1_ over some frozen planet whose name couldn’t she even remember.

God, she needed a drink, unfortunately she has been trying to cut short the intake of alcohol she was shipping lately, recognizing it was kind of disturbing how much she could gulp down and not even be fazed. Something good must have whatever Cerberus has done with her and for Chakwas has already told her as soon as she did a medical check up on her, she had cybernetics that were only a rumor in the medical community, specially nano-tech and bio-enforcers that would bring her totally busted organs back to work.

In a sense Miranda had done an outstanding work, bringing her back to life, exactly like she was before her baby was blown to pieces but at the same time, she failed, as she had to resort to obscure tech to make her even better than she was. Well, she was alive and kicking...hope SHE was alive and kicking and not some kind of clone who believed she was Shepard, and was only a rip off, tailor made, flesh work to pose as Shepard as she faced the Collectors.

In the tiny and hidden corners of her mind, she was sure, she was she, but the doubt was always there and slowly chewing the corners of her resolution, after all she was dead, she could be whatever Miranda wanted her to believe, in the two years she had been with the skull open to any fucker out there to mingle with her memories and loyalties.

At first sight, she was still she, she cared for her team, she was as badass as she was before her death and in general, leaving apart her brooding seizures from time to time, she was as Shepard as she could be sure she was...that was odd, and confusing, and somehow sad.

Blowing a kiss to the image on the mirror, she winked at her reflex and put a sexy pose.

“Heck, I’m sexy and I know it” giggled to herself.

If any, Cerberus had done a perfect work with her body, to bring it back as sexy as it was, even some minor scars like the one on her calf from a thing with fangs on the surface of a rotten asteroid or the scarred hole on her shoulder from a bullet of the pistol of a batarian slaver during the incident in Elysium.

Everything like she was...dammit...

Sighing, Shepard moved to the main room and pick some clothes, she will dress simply tonight, the same dress like the rest of the crew but without any alliance symbols, she was little feed up about how the Alliance has treated her body and disappearance, so for the moment, she will not show any loyalty.

Well, that’s not entirely true, she was Alliance to the core but she will make them squirm for a little until the will need of her and call her back, she will resist of course, she was a fucking Specter; partly recognized but still present; now and that means she could kick ass and takes names whenever she is in Citadel space.

Pity, Terminus systems are not Citadel space but for the rest it was a nice sensation.

She walked to the elevator and patiently waited for the arrival of the box; there was some emergency stairs next too the quarters' door just in case of malfunction and damages from an attack, but still she felt a little unsure about the necessity of the elevator.

In the first Normandy you can walk everywhere, noticed that this Normandy was bigger then the previous but...The door opened and Shepard raise an eyebrow at the presence of Mordin and Kelly chatting happily in the box, both of them repaired in Shepard and saluted her.

“Oh, Hello Commander” smiled Kelly, this girl was a spy but at the same time she was so gingerly adorable that it was difficult to be mad at her “ I bring you the daily reports of the crew and my first impressions about Jack”.

“Shepard, I was thinking if you could tell me how did work the Bolter of the Iron wolf” tapped in his omnitool Mordin “being a supersoldier raised by a xenophobic galaxy, it will be dangerous for me to ask him about his sacred technology, quite illogical procedures about tech, but as cultural matter I will not say anything, anyhow, in the mission report it says that you could shoot once, the weapon called meltagun under the solid slug cannon and it managed to vaporize fifty meters of concrete and reinforced metal like they were nothing, I found it very disturbing considering that any fusion theories out there...”

“Doctor, please stop” whined Shepard already with a headache “why don’t you ask himself tonight?, is already time to dinner and if the patron repeats, he will be there again to answer all our questions”.

“Humpf; better said provoke even more questions” pouted Kelly who wanted to interview the Iron wolf but the only time he was out of his shuttle was during the missions or this story telling dinners, otherwise he was completely out of reach.

“Be happy that he just appears” snorted Shepard “ he is a lone puppy in a hostile universe, just be glad that he didn’t go crazy already and start killing xenos right and left”.

“Disturbing picture Shepard” said Mordin nodding “ military speaking he is a dangerous threat for all of us, as he so colorful call Xenos, a Latin word for alien of any kind, its fascinating how he don’t call himself human yet at the same time he is one devoted protector of human kind, his humankind nonetheless, I think I have recorded from previous chat how he consider this universe humanity xenolovers, a derogatory term for people that had continuous commercial and cultural deals with the aliens of their universe...”

“I’m going down” announced Shepard taking the data slate from Kelly hands “is late and I need grub and booze, you are welcome to join me”.

Kelly and Mordin keep chatting animatedly about the differences between cultures, no matter what you think about Kelly, she was a very competent yeoman who loved all the spices in the universe; how has she ended in Cerberus, must be a tale of her own.

Shepard eyed the report about Jack, it somehow clicked with her own thoughts, dangerous, unstable, crazy as hell and with the patience of a varren with hemorrhoids. That will be the description of her mental status right now, she has repeatedly threatened Kelly with ripping her fucking ginger face off if she didn’t get the fuck off her hole. This promises to be a complete pain in the ass, she was a heavy hitter with her biotics but at the same time she was unstable and unable to follow any strategy on the battlefield unless she demonstrated Jack that she was in command and there is no space for bullshits with her.

Giving her access to the Cerberus data base seems to be a step in the right direction and Kelly has pointed some ways to temperate her rage, first of all, be clear who was the alpha female here and how she had no time for any bullshit she pretended to pull on her. Easier said that done considering the girl could tear apart half of the ship in her biotic rage before they manage to shut her down.

The elevator doors opened and Shepard find the place as crowed as he expected it to be; the rumors of the tales of the Iron wolf had already become a reality and all the crew that was not on duty, had come to the dinning hall to see if the Iron wolf will bring again another of his spectaculars holo displays.

Said Iron wolf was talking with Zaeed and Gardner over the kitchen with a jar of his already famous/infamous mead, and for what could hear over the chat on the room, they were talking about recipes of mead; Gardner wanted to distill some of his own in his free time.

Iron wolf see no problem of that, no _Aett_ worth that name should be without a good distillery of their own or without some unique and personal, distill to toast with; during the victory feast after a victorious campaign.

Shepard walked straight to the chatting three men and after saluting them pick up a tray and start serving tonight dinner, some the unique recipes of Gardner; she like some of them but other need some extra work.

Still, it was a very welcome change from the cardboard with spices that they had previously.

Filling her own glass with the mead, she sat on the table, always near Garrus, and waited patiently to the inevitable story time of the Iron wolf and his holo display, said projector was on the floor in a corner of the room by the way.

She ate slowly, enjoying the food and the company and savoring the mead, she would indulge herself with that drink a little, it was the only alcoholic drink she had drink in all day, so she considered it just fair as reward, for being a good girl and do not kill all the bureaucrats on the galaxy as soon as she could put her hands on them.

Iron wolf sat on his chair and picking his omnitool in his cybernetic arm, make put the holographic machine in the middle of the room, as soon as the preparations start, everyone fell silent except some excited whispers about what would be next. Iron wolf scratched his chin and tap on the omnitool, the universe, his universe appeared for all the crew to see, some of them tried to catch a star and joked about how they were expecting to be burn; such was the quality of the surrounding images.

“In the past I did talk about the dark ages of the man and how the _Abominable Intelligence,_ almost eradicate the humankind but during that dark ages, humanity as always did prosper...in ways that will produce nightmares and in wonderful ways that gladly joined the imperial light”.

Iron wolf focused the zoom on Terra, his Terra, long before they massive techno nightmare that she had become to house the capital of the Imperium of man.

“The Age of Strife, the days were everyone was on their own, lost in the eternal darkness of the space and at the hands of the hordes of Xenos that plagued the space, among those days were the days when the Warp touched individuals appears, people that could manipulate the warp to do impossible things that defies all logic”.

No one said nothing as they were listening for the tale but at the same time, all of them were completely lost to the terms he had used, specially that warp.

“In those days of darkness, superstition and madness, the Emperor made his appearance and conquered earth with his armies, my predecessors in the charge of being the bulwark of humanity against the darkness, the Thunder warriors”.

Like an eagle the vision of the earth changed to see the planet over the surface.

“Those were legends of ancient times, and only rumors and battle trophies left in the sacred vaults of Terra, protected by the Custodes, the ones that were the golden hands and royal guard of the Sacred Emperor of Humankind”.

“Those were times of war, when the Emperor reunited all the squirming nations and brings them to the light of the Imperium, together, they created a fleet to search in the stars for the one that had been abandoned in the darkness of the space by the Iron men, and the warp storms that separated the universe for thousands of years”.

Iron wolf smiled, towering over the image as he has raised from the seat he has been sat on and with his hand, controlled an image of the solar system and a dozen of pointers start to appear over the planets.

Iron wolf start to talk about all the crusade and the Primarchs, created the first days of the Imperium, sons of the Emperor, from his own flesh and blood, created to be the heralds of the Imperium into the stars and how they were snatched from their own cradles by the dammed forces of Chaos.

“And once again, I can barely believe you have raised your hand...again” laughed Iron wolf, stopping the tale at the sight of Kasumi, who wasn’t there a second ago, appear next to Jacob with the hand raised like she was a schoolgirl.

“What is that Chaos?, an organization?, a cult?, what?” asked the girl and Iron wolf sighed snorting like a wolf, an image that make some chuckle.

“There is no word that could express what the Chaos is, but one thing is clear” said Iron wolf and all humor evaporated on the room when he spoke, a tiny layer of frost cover the floor of the hall and the temperature system of the room almost overloading trying to compensate the sudden freezing.

“ **Chaos is damnation, Chaos is slavery, Chaos is corruption, Chaos is wors** **e** **than death** ” intoned Iron Wolf like a mantra, firmly resonating all those words in their minds like hammers “creatures of nightmare, horrors made flesh and blood, destroying all souls in their way, Chaos must be destroyed at all cost”.

“Forget I ever ask” gulped Kasumi shrugging on her chair and wishing to be any other place but there.

“Good, nothing god will never come from that knowledge and at the end of my tale I will reveal why” promised the Iron wolf and keep his previous tale.

The armies of the Emperor reached the stars, following the massive exodus that once did the humanity, seeking their brothers and sisters lost during the long night and colonizing new planets and lands.

The Emperor reach Mars and then he meet the Cult Mechanicus, when the sacred Emperor reach Mars, they immediately recognize him as the _Omnissiah or Deus Mechanicus_ , the Machine-God incarnate in flesh.

“Ask Salarian” sighed Iron wolf looking at Mordin “ I can sense your mind overworking”.

“Machine-god?” asked the Salarian completely incredulous but soon he looked at the yellow eyes of the Iron wolf and rephrase very quickly and carefully what he was about to say.

“Excuse me Iron wolf but I always believed that tech and any spiritual believe were in the extremes of any scientific procedure and suddenly, listening about a Machine god, its kind of shocking for me, specially when you proved to me that you are quite the engineer yourself along most probably a high degree in physic and energies related matters”.

“The Quest for Knowledge is the most sacred belief of the Cult mechanicus” explained Iron wolf, who had already committed enough tech heresies during his time in the Eye of Terror to be banned for life from the Mechanicum or being exterminated for his defiling of the sacred STC designs “knowledge is the supreme manifestation of divinity; and all creatures and artifacts that embody knowledge are holy because of it”.

“Machines that preserve knowledge from ancient times are also holy, and machine intelligences are no less divine than those of flesh and blood” Mordin face turned to one of fascination as he was taking notes “ a man's worth is only the sum of his knowledge; his body is simply an organic machine capable of preserving intellect. In the Cult's tenets, life itself is of no intrinsic value”.

Iron wolf just stared at the salarian pondering the old precepts, it has been so long since he could spoke them out loud, no matter the audience have Xenos among them.

“For millennium, Mars became the sacred deposit of all the knowledge that survived the Long Night, the Cult mechanicus prospered in the Red planet, building machines and deepening their knowledge about the miracles of the _Omnissiah_ until he land on the planet and the era of the Imperium truly begun”.

He talked about the day the Emperor presented himself in front of the Red priests of Mars and how they soon saw him as the _Omnissiah,_ made flesh, recognizing him for what he was and helping him with all the knowledge he could need to start what in the future will be call as the Great Crusade. It was a time of wonders and horrors but at the same time and for the first time since any of them remembered, Iron wolf smiled, a true smile, a sad yet happy smile of times long past, drown into the sorrows of the war.

The Emperor knew he need an army and created one, the space marines, the adeptus astartes, perfect soldiers, armed with all the tech the Mechanicus created for them, ready to take the stars and bring the light of the Emperor over all the lost and dammed human souls in the Age of Strife and the Dark age.

The Emperor itself commanded the Crusade, conquering world after world, and leaving the basis of the Empire behind them, military, government, economy, entire solar systems restructured to be once again worthy of the human Imperium.

And among the stars, the Lost sons were found.

The Primarchs, the lost sons of the Emperor were found by his father, each one of them protected by the mighty mind and power of the All-father, traveled through the warp and landed in different and dangerous lands. But all the travel did make an impact of them, traveling the currents of the Sea of souls is taxing and even with the divine protection of the All-father, some of them develop unique characteristics that made them different from even their own brothers. Each one of them, conquered their own planet, becoming kings and leaders among men, who among the mortals can walk alongside a demigod and do not fell under its charisma?.When the Emperor start to rediscover his sons among the stars, his joy was great and soon bring them back to Terra to recognized them as his sons, and giving each one of them a legion of astartes.

Legions made with their own gene-seed as basis for their genetic base, each one of those legions will gladly rejoin his fathers and together keep going the Crusade, expanding the Imperium and bringing down all the menaces that populated the starts.

No enemy could withstand the power of the Legions.

Each crusade fleet was formed by several legions and millions of Astra Militarum; Imperial Guards, humans trained and armed to conquer the stars in the name of the Emperor, armed with the technology of the Cult Mechanicus.

It was truly a sight to behold; the Golden Dawn of Humankind.

Entire civilizations were conquered and absorbed into the Imperial light.

Some accepted with gratitude, after the end of an era of darkness, other were so corrupted, so deep in their own ways that will never submit and violently oppose anyone that menace that same corrupted style of life.

But there was another dangers hidden in the stars, from the whispers of the warp that destroys mind, body and soul forever; to the eternal plague that were the Xenos.

The Chuffian, Fra, Chu-tain, the eldar, the orcs...

“Wait, what?!” shouted Kasumi and Mordin at the same time, for complete different reasons.

Iron wolf sighed and raise his omnitool to manifest a very vivid, very detailed picture of one _Boy_ of the Bloody ax clan, charging into the wall of the elevator with his characteristic WAAAAAGGGGHHHH roar that made all people wince and some of them jump over their seats, Shepard, Miranda and Jacob had already a blue aura surrounding their bodies and Garrus had a long and serrated knife on his hands.

Kasumi had already disappeared only to reappear a second later in front of the frozen image of the ork giggling with enthusiasm and looking at Iron wolf with almost stars on the eyes and no little astonishment in her hooded faced, all his body language spoke of confusion and marvel at the same time.

“It's an ork, a real fucking ork!” shouted the girl cursing in a not very Kasumi way of being “ they exist, for Pete sake they did exist somewhere!”.

“That is what they called a _Boyz;_ basic infantry for the ork war bands or WAAAGHS as they called it” explained Iron wolf completely calm “when the entire population of an ork system decided to travel to any place and battle whatever they encounter in the travel or when they land like rocks in the middle of a planet”.

“Fascinating!” shouted Mordin “ they was human fiction, Lord of the Rings if I am not mistaken about human literature, good lecture, fantasy genre but to believe that they did exist in another universe, do they obey a dark lord to?, did they were some corrupted version of another race like in the fiction?, I can see a very crude weaponry, how on earth can work that thing?, is even a pistol?, wait, is he using a sharpened bumper as sword?, and how come he had teeth under his...pink hair?”.

“No, no, because the ork believe it works, yes, yes and yes” answered Iron wolf to the excited salarian with all seriousness and that did convince all the table that he was not fucking messing around.

“The ork were the most widespread race of Xenos the Empire has ever meet, they thrive on violence and battle; and I mean literally, they are a living ecosystem of their own that infects and gradually changes where they land into an ecosystem of their own” said Iron wolf showing how the ork had entire solar systems under they green fists, all of them in a constant warfare; just as they like it.

“The orks are stronger than the common human, resilient as hell and do not fear anything, they fight among themselves” pointed to a bigger ork than the mob that was charging against the maker of the picture “and when one of them grows bigger and had crushed all opposition in his own planet, they embark in big rock with rockets and slam it against the nearest planet they find, to wage war against whoever is in it”.

“How did you manage to beat those sons of bitches?” mumbled Zaeed making a clever remark next, that did surprise all around him as they had always considered the hardened veteran nothing but a grunt with luck “ this are your memories Iron wolf, this is your eyes point of view, so you were at the other side of that charge, so, how the hell did you make it?”.

Iron wolf smiled with his predatory glance and the image became a vid.

The mob of orks, leaded by a massive ork who was even taller than the Iron wolf, carrying a crude two hands ax made with two chainsaws chained to a pole and carrying a big, trashy, revolver that was glued together with iron wire.

After him a bunch of smaller yet huge orks, were shouting and stomping their improvised and crude weapons in the air, the visual change, as Iron Wolf view change, looking at his side were a trio of Servitors ;like the two that appeared and defend the ship in Purgatory; stand at his side and suddenly their massive machine guns start shooting to the orks.

The heavy slugs of the machine guns, weapons that did seems like bigger and more powerful versions of the bolter of the Iron Wolf, harvest the lines of the orks like they were nothing but wheat in front of a harvester. The orks didn’t give a shit about the casualties and they roared and charge only to be received by a burst of flame and the whizzing and screeching sound of plasma weaponry being fired; the explosion melted half a dozen of the orks that died before they could even realize they were dead.

Still, the gigantic one, the biggest and strongest of them, keep running until he could chop down his bastardized sword and engage Iron Wolf in close combat, they could hear the laugh of the Iron Wolf as he raised some kind of two handed war hammer and parry the ork weapon with his own in an explosion of energy and clashing metal. Faster than one could believe considering the size of the contenders, they exchange some parries and feints before Iron Wolf twist his hammer and with a powerful blow make the head of the ork explode in a shower of blood and gore.

The power output of the hammer was enough to complete vaporize the ork, as his body exploded like a grenade, spreading his innards and primitive equipment all over the battlefield on where both were fighting.

Laughing and howling like a wolf, Iron wolf raise his head to the sky and saluted to a massive form that...

The picture end there and a lot of disappointed protests and groans, could be hear from the audience, much to the mischievously smile of the Iron wolf that simply sat comfortably on his chair and drink a little more of mead.

So much talking and review the millenia of memories of constant warfare for a specific moment that could not reveal the true power of the Imperial weaponry to his new _Aett,_ gives a lot of thirst.

“The orks were just the most expanded of the alien races that the humanity found in the stars; but at the end, the power of the crusade knew no bounds and be it by the sword, be it by the pen, all of them fall in one form or another, to the advance of the Imperial legions guided by the Emperor himself and his sons, the Primarchs”.

Iron Wolf shut up for a minute and soon the audience exchange some glares, specially Shepard and Garrus who muttered to each other.

“What do you think?” said Shepard knowing that Garrus was a very good detective.

“I think that, as humans says, we have reach a Rubicon and Iron Wolf is debating himself is we deserve to be informed or not” whispered Garrus and he has hit the nail on the head.

Miranda and some other among the crew has reach the same conclusions and like sheep in front of a wolf, they were waiting to see what will the astartes do, will he trust them?, will he keep silent?, until now it has been quite difficult to understand.

“You are right Garrus” said suddenly Iron Wolf and Garrus flinched, every time the Iron Wolf used his name, it means some serious business.

“I am in the edge of an abyss that none of my kind has experimented since the days of the Crusade” said the Iron Wolf with a solemn voice that send chills through everyone spines, this was a little off by the usual stories but...hell.

“I am astartes, I am Vlka Fenryka, I am a proud son of Fenris and now, here I am, speaking with Xenos and heathens that know nothing of the Emperor blessings and instead they consort with Xenos as it was a common thing” shook his head Iron Wolf and despite not understanding half of the titles, the tone was unmistakeable sad and worn.

“But you had something that my universe has lost, you had Hope”.

Shepard almost flinched when the gaze of the Iron wolf fixated on her like a laser.

“You are the best humanity had to offer Shepard, and you gave me the only thing that I needed” explain Iron Wolf and no one dared to interrupt the speech, there was power behind his words.

“You give me purpose and for that I am grateful and in your debt, if I wasn’t for you I would have never reclaimed the mantle of my King, so for the first time and only this time, you, as leader of this _Aett_ , the _Jarl_ and _Queen_ of this _Aett;_ only you could ask one single thing from for me”.

Iron Wolf raise his metallic hand and a complete display of tech wonders appeared in front everyone, from strange and brutal close combat weapons, to armor and impressive ships that make the _Ascension of Destiny_ look like a toy.

“Ask Shepard and I will forge it for you, but after that, the score will be settled” the words were like a sentence, they freeze every one in the dinner hall as the same air on the place starts to felt cold and heavy.

The AC of the ships fought the sudden change but it was a lost battle, there was power alive in the room, the will of the Runic priest make presence in the physical space and he will not be denied by something like a simply climatic machine.

Shepard gulped and see around, none of the crew knew what to say, only Garrus squeeze her hand a little, offering her all the support he could without speaking a word that could broke the atmosphere that the words and will of the Iron Wolf has managed to summon, leaving all biotic in the universe like parlor tricks.

She took strength from that gesture, Garrus was always there for her and now once again there he was, her friend and loyal companion, she will never knew what she will do if he ever left her.

The Emperor protects, said the Iron wolf to her once, and for a second, a whisper in the back of her mind suddenly give her the inspiration she needed, she will never be sure, but that whisper, carried the same power as the words of the Emperor that Tor recited when he spoke about the Astartes.

With a wicked smile ;the same one that Garrus had learned to love and fear every time he saw it; she level her eyes so she could see eye to eye the Iron Wolf and replied to his challenge.

“Your trust, Iron Wolf” said with a neuter voice.

No one dared to say a word and the only sound were the overloaded AC systems trying to put back the temperature of the room to a one that was not directly freezing.

The Iron wolf started to laugh, slowly at the beginning but soon the astartes found himself roaring in laughter; a roar that had the unmistakeable sound of approval.

“Well played Jarl” laughed the Iron Wolf with a smile that mirrored the one that Shepard had.

“ _Spirits”_ thought Garrus _“ now there are two of them”._

Unknown for both of them, or for all the presents in the room; this was a pivotal point in history.

Shepard has unleashed a monster, the worst monster she could even dream about, yet, the most capable defender the universe could have even dreamed, the wolves of Fenris were not extinct, not forgotten.

The universe will know again of the howl of the wolves, of the wrath of the Fenris born and for the first time in their eons long life, the Reapers and the enemies of humankind will experiment what every enemies of the Vlka Fenryka had experiment.

_**THEY WILL FEAR THE WRATH OF THE SPACE WOLVES** _


End file.
